Yesterday evening I elected to dine near the waterfront, and arrived at the restaurant early enough to get a seat near the window. This collection of boats was partially obscured by a dock, but it kept calling to me, so after dinner I went back to my car for my camera and then went down to the waterfront to take this shot.
I took several different versions of this image -- some horizontal, some vertical; some with the little white dinghy, some without -- and I don't know yet which I like the best; it takes me a while to feel my way through these sorts of value judgments, as my responses tend to vary over time.
But this morning this is the one that sings to me. For some reason it feels like it has a tenderness to it; the way the larger boats are clustered around the smaller one; the way the lines seem to be converging as they approach the bottom of the image.
I remember reading, when I studied child psychology in college, that the primary characteristic of a two-year-old (other than their use of the word NO!) is their yo-yo behavior. One minute they are clinging to their parent, and then next they are running away to explore the world.
I'm wondering now, speaking first as a mother, if that yo-yo phenomenon doesn't continue well into adulthood; it's just that the string gets longer and longer, so the time spent apart and away, discovering the world, keeps getting longer and longer, and the time spent re-connecting gets shorter.
Do you suppose that our relationship with the divine has a similar yo-yo-like quality? We know our spiritual life has its ups and downs; times we spend in the desert feeling separated and lost balance with times we spend showered with nourishment. If so, then I would hope that the times spent in the hand of God grow longer as we age, rather than shorter...
But however that plays out over time, I just know that today I am craving that closeness, that tenderness and comfort. Like this little dinghy, I want to sit in the lap of the divine and feel arms around me, holding me close.
1 comment:
Me, too...yet, at times like this, I find it can be hard (like a 2-year-old) to sit still in that lap long enough to feel the comfort!
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