Contemplation of Earth’s Beauties: To know the sense of Wonder and Humility.
I am alone ~ I come to know:
Earth's beauties ~ I enter with love:
A calmness settles me ~ I come to know:
I am never ~ And never will be ~ Alone. ~Ally.
A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. ~Rachel Carson: The Sense of Wonder.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
Yet, does it always have to be this way?
Our sense of childlike curiosity and awe of the smallest ant, may be hammered out of us at a very early age ~ Or so it may seem.
Yet with an undeniable acceptance of ourselves: Who we have become to meet the outside world. as well as who we are in those moments of total solitude ~ We CAN 'turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties, reclaim the sense of wonder and humility we had as a child.' ~R.C.
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility. ~Rachel Carson. The Sense of Wonder.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
Can you remember your early childhood 'dreams?'
Prevailing conditions in our environment, social and financial, health and relationships, will take our life's journey in directions that we could never have believed as yougsters. Some beneficial ~ Some that may not seem like it at the time but in retrospect were needed to shape us.
Often it's a challenge to recall our early childhood 'dreams' and our lives just go on ~ Albeit somewhere between a little lack lustre or so demanding we become overly anxious and stressed. However at critical times in our lives and often when we least expect it, life may make us STOP: An ordinary 'cold' or a separation from a loved one. And if we are fortunate, we may be given a wake-up call to come back to venerating our 'dreams' once again.
Our core 'dreams' will always there. We only need to pause long enough to catch hold of them once again. ~Ally
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will ensure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature: The assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. ~Rachel Carson. Silent Spring.
Photograph: ©Alison Lee Cousland.
Rachel Carson. 1907 - 1964.
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose book Silent Spring and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. ~Wikipedia.
Silent Spring meticulously described how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissues of animals, including human beings and caused cancer and genetic damage. A single application on a crop, she wrote, killed insects for weeks and months. Not only the targeted insects but countless more and remained toxic in the environment even after it was diluted by rainwater.
Carson concluded that DDT and other pesticides had irrevocably harmed animals and had contaminated the world's food supply. The book's most haunting and famous chapter 'A Fable for Tomorrow' depicted a nameless American town where all life, from fish to birds to apple blossoms to human children ~ Had been 'silenced' by the insidious effects of DDT. Ref: bit.ly/StoryofSilentSpring
The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) was founded in 2009 in Munich, Germany. The RCC is an international, interdisciplinary center for research and education in the environmental humanities. For more information visit: bit.ly/RachelCarsonCenter
About this work.
- Glass stones under a thin layer of ice. Crystal tumble stones and a phalaenopsis orchid resting upon the ice.
- White chrysanthemums added.
- Another phalaenopsis orchid and more chrysanthemums.
About my work.
Relatively small assemblages are built from flowers, weeds and plants and combined with other natural materials that I find in the local bushland or surrounding urban streets.
During the creation of these pieces ~ The process is incredibly magical. Thoughts of anything else are silenced.
I literally fall in love with individual pieces of nature that I'm using, as well as how the different elements greet, merge, compliment and/or contrast with each other.
Hundreds of photographs that can't possibly capture the beauty I see with my eyes are taken at different stages of the arrangement. Then ideas/thoughts/words that come to me, as I look at the resulting images give form to a new expression ~ Short 'poems.'
A fuller description is in my introductory article: The Heart of Immortality.
I really enjoy receiving comments and questions about my work ~ From people who may see and add another dimension from their own reality. So if you have another layer to add ~ Please do.