Thursday, July 26, 2012

Wondering Why

Yesterday, a friend asked, "How did you come to be such a wonderful dragonfly photographer?  Were you always interested in them?"

I answered her, easily and quickly: "Two years' interest.  I'm trying to identify all the species here on the Domain.  They're really hard to photograph, so it's fun to try to snap them."

This is true, but I don't think it's the whole truth or the deepest truth.  Why, I have been wondering all day, do I spend so much time each day looking at and photographing dragonflies? 

If I don't hunt and snap, I am unhappy, grow physically restless, feel my energy sap and zap.  There is something about being outside, alone, looking at creatures that I used not to see, finding them everywhere.  Sunday, I drove with a friend almost an hour away to an orchard.  Three times or four, I exclaimed as we started to leave a spot, "Look!  There's a dragonfly!"  They are always with me.

So much surrounds us every day, outside of ourselves and in.  Choosing what to attend to is what I do.  Creative focus itself alleviates loneliness, disappointment, anxiety, listlessness, . . . .  You name the ailment and I respond, Look!  There!

I hope you will see what I think I have found.

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