Listening to the small voice.
I guess that I’m a creature of habit, or perhaps lazy. I find that I don’t like, all that much, to go to so many different places and get many different photographs. All it does is confuse me. That is to say, I don’t know what it is that I’m trying to say when I go to a new place. Sure, it’s easy to get caught up in the grandeur of the mountains, the vast open spaces of the beach, or the mystery of a swamp, but those are the shouts. The big “Look at me voices”. Below that, there is something quiet. That’s what I seek.
It’s kind of odd. Sometimes I don’t hear that voice, even though I know that ultimately, it’s the voice that soothes. It’s the voice that makes me smile when I place my CF card into the reader and see what I got. To see if I heard. When I listen to the shouts, I usually end up with pictures that are simply ‘nice’ and have little meaning to me. The easy shots. The ones that are easy to delete.
I’ve been trying to stay away from the field across the street, but it continues to call, so I continue to go. I know that I cannot exhaust all that it has to offer to me. All I have to do is to be quiet and listen. Its gifts are endless.
Today, I discovered this little cluster of flowers. I was just out for a casual stroll through the field, 50mm lens mounted, to see what I could see. This is what I saw. These flowers were growing in an area that had been intended for a small flower bed, but has obviously not been tended to. It was overgrown with weeds and dead or dying vegetation, but these guys didn’t seem to mind.
It’s amazing how many cars go by this field, how many people walk by, or through, and how much of it gets ignored. They continue to cut the grass, yet the clover keeps right on flowering as if nothing happened. It seems as if it is hanging around waiting for me to start my book on Monday. Perhaps it is waiting. What a nice thought.
But, isn’t that what we do? We find things people miss, and we place a frame around it and tell others ‘hey, have a look at this!’
And the issue about the small voice . . . I try to get to what I call the quiet voice, out of my ego-mind, and into that space where I can see the world with the eyes of a child. For me, that’s the challenge.
Great post
That’s a well earned insight of yours, to foremost listen to the small voices. Cultivate this carefully, like you did with those daisys. How wonderful don’t they look through your eyes? Living on this beautifully green and calming field with the sparkling civilisation there in the far background makes them forget about all the weeds and dead vegetation. The field waits to welcome you of all it’s heart, knowing how you see it.
I love it when I read something and it resonates with my own thoughts to the extent that I’m silently shouting “yes!” in my head
I knew about the magic of ‘the quiet ones’ but I hadn’t quite had the penny drop on why those big loud pictures of the grand landscapes didn’t do anything for me, and there it is now. Thank you.
Put me on the waiting list for that book!
Very well witten Paul.
Tom
Great post!
My take: While it is easy to be distracted by “the shouts” there are small/quiet voices everywhere. It’s all about listening.
It reminds me of a cartoon drawing I saw where there’s a beautiful sunset over a mountain scene and against a viewing rail were crowd dozens of photographers trying to capture the vista before them. Off to one side was a single photographer taking photos of the photographers.
The small voice amid the shouts.
Paul, I had to laugh this morning as we must of crossed reading paths several times judging from the comment trail each of us has left.
@Earl: Yeah, we seemed to be walking the same exact trail this morning.
Can you guys at least leave bird seed or somethin’ so others can follow?
grin.
The Tao is speaking Paul, and once again you are listening.
Nice post Paul. Sometimes I find those little voices are also speaking in another language – sometimes I can interpret, other times not so much.
Maybe that is the greatest gift that photography (our perhaps art in general) has to offer to us: that we are getting aware of that small voice. That we are learning to see and to receive. We only need to accept it.
That photo is wonderful! Light and airy, catching the mood…
And then there is the issue of how that small, quiet voice has to compete with the loud, obnoxious negative voices in my head.
Great post/image that goes straight to the heart and mind.
It seems you have crossed paths with the Miksang way of seeing fostered by Michael Wood.
http://miksang.com/miksang.html If you follow this link, click on him under Instructors and view his gallery of images.
Some of my best images, in my mind, have been made from the easy chair on my patio. Now that is lazy. You don’t have to go far and wide to find the beauty in the world.
Thank you so much for the clear message.
Steve Weeks
One of the other great things about this blog is the people who visit.
@Steve: Thanks for the reminder. I remember coming across this nearly 2 years ago. I wrote about it here. I went back and browsed the site again after seeing your comment. It’s nice to be reminded.
Paul: Great post and you have got to the heart of that way of seeing, go with it. steve