February 09, 2010 - 3:40 PM

Nature and the Present

Title: "Cloud Circle"

Location: Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada

I woke up driving to work this morning.  I hadn’t fallen asleep, but I wasn’t awake to what was happening around me; lost in planning for the future and in reviewing the past. Driving the same route had created a monotonous fog for my mind to drift in.   I was in a darkness to any beauty or message the natural environment was offering.  I’m reminded of a James Joyce quote,  "Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body."  (The Dubliners)

While waiting for traffic to clear, a dramatic light finally penetrated my train of thought; the warmth of the rising sun gleaming in gamboling clouds. The light and movement of nature awakened me to a beautiful moment amidst the rat race of getting to work. Here is where I would like to make a tie to the discussion of why nature art enjoys such broad popularity.  Nature photographs remind us of the richness of being fully present, awake and aware.

A photograph is a two dimensional reflection of a precise moment in time.   In our busy lives our minds are pulled, jerked and strained by expectations and hypotheticals.  Stopping our lives to observe a moment with inquisitively vigilant senses is not only rare, it carries a stigma of being unproductive, as if we will quickly fall behind by embracing such trivial foolishness.  Somebody might honk their horn at us!

Looking at a photograph, where the world is still, makes observing the moment accessible, socially acceptable and inherently gratifying.  The two dimensional image resonates in our mind to build a multidimensional experience.  This experience is particularly pleasurable if the image invokes memories of past peak experiences. 

I need to research this more, but in asking a number of friends and family what experiences in their past invoke the most positive, relaxed, and joyful memories, a large proportion of those experiences took place outdoors.  A poignant comment was, “All of my fondest childhood memories are of times spent outside climbing trees, in the lake and such.”

Times spent outdoors not only conjure feelings of being connected to a life sustaining environment, but they also remind us of times when we fully experienced the moment.  Hurrying into the future was gladly allayed by all sharing the experience.  In short, we participated in being truly alive.  A well composed nature photograph or painting opens a window to the visceral memories of those peak experiences.

“Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.”  James Joyce, Ulysses