Thematic Photographic # 173- 'Flash of Color'

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The sun rises at 10:22 AM and will set at 2:58 PM today, if it shows its face at all. From where I sit, the Alaska Range is obscured by hundreds of miles, clouds, city skyline and work deadlines.


I power up my computer to the familiar greeting of near mountains, the memory of rainfall, the crisp wind that only blows down the valleys where the wild things are.

I inhale. This.



Alaska Range, Denali National Park



I remember. Vividly. Spreading out my jacket on the red tundra carpet, stretching out and using my human-tripod to balance and stabilize the camera. Breathing softly. Keeping the fog away from the lens. Peering over the edge of the gorge, in the vest pocket of the Alaska Range, I snapped these shots "for later". Stashing them away against the cold, dark, icy days of deep Winter, I silently absorbed the Now.

In the northern latitudes, the earth has retreated from the sun- withdrawn herself to cold and quiet, resolved a solitary renewal. There is a simple magic to the dark, the silence. Embracing the shadows, the long winter's sleep, the human spirit can restore, recover, renew in this space.

When the dark closes in, we search for light. Unlike bulbs wintering over in a basement cellar, we writhe and struggle and demand warmth of soul. Somewhere in the letting go of Light, there is renewal. In the absence of warmth, there is a necessary cold. Inhaling it, accepting it- still, quiet and awake- we grow roots.

Roots, like any foundation, don't flourish in sunlight, heat, warm summer breezes... they require the dark.

Wonder Lake, Denali National Park

 
 
Understanding, acknowledging, embracing all that is this wintering-season, I find the genius loci here is a benevolent thing. It matters not- to the mountain- whether I climb or not. It matters not- to the Dark- whether or not I grow roots.
 

 - Denali -

 

The inability to observe something does not preclude its existence.

 

Denali- obscured by clouds

Sometimes, the 'Flash of Color' is understanding.

 

 

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