The Art of Seeing What is Not There

It is all around us every day, the beauty, the grace and magic filled in our amazing world. I listened to a writer trying to teach and describe,"how to write". I realized this also applies to photography and any artist. This also applies to your soul and life.

It can be the simplest things, the majestic beauty we take for granted or the time to appreciate and enjoy. Nature speaks to all of us, but do you take the time to listen? I met a friend recently for lunch, and we did a little hike first. We met at an iconic famous waterfall. Its along side a major freeway and thousands of people pass it daily, so they see it? Road conditions and reports speak of it as a "mile marker, a known spot along the way", but when people use it in mention, they know where it is and always there. So as people hurry along pass in their vehicles, do they even notice the waterfall? It like everything around us, changes by the day, the season, the weather, the daylight upon it as the hours pass.

"The art of seeing, makes gratitude possible" - Ann Voskamp

So when this teacher explained about how to write by, " seeing what is not there", the meaning goes deep. Its not just about imagination and making up a story, its not just about stopping to see something that is there every time we pass it by and we don't take the time to look; its about faith in life and our existence. Have the faith to believe what is there that you can't see.

"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe." — Saint Augustine

So stop, and feel it, take the time to see it and even wait and it will speak to you. Like the sunrise, we know it comes up every morning. The sun comes up even if we can't see it behind the clouds. Of course, the filter of light clouds will let the sunrise speak to you, if you wait for it and listen. The Aurora is there and has the energy bursting, but we can't always see it ( too much light pollution, wrong time of day, not far enough North, maybe you are down in a valley without a open North view). The energy of the Aurora has actually kept me awake at night, and hard to see with the naked eye.....but patience with the camera that can keep its eyes open for 20 seconds....captures the magic. Sometimes you have to feel what you can't see, so you can see it.

I have heard people say they are not sure if they believe in God, because they can't see him. You can see him, in everything he has created. You can hear him, if you stop to listen. You are not going to hear a voice talk to you but you will hear him talk to you through the silence of nature. Just take the time to listen, take the time to see. Take the leap of faith and see what actually is there through the art of what you can't see.

"All creation is in the art of seeing" - John Berger