Seeing the Light

I love the quality of the light this time of year. The sun sits lower on the horizon, creating long rays of light, especially in the morning and evening. This allows me to see things not noticeable in the bright sunshine of the summer sun. The light captures raindrops and casts longer shadows.

Sometimes the raindrops will act as prisms and turn beautiful colors. This happens only on Spring and Fall mornings, when the rays of light are low enough to shine through the little drops. I have seen bright green, red, and blue. They are as bright as little electric lights, blinking in the sun.

This is also the time of year when gossamer spider webs are illuminated in the morning dew. Imagine the work that went into such a creation! It was visible for only a short time before the sun rose and the dew evaporated.

Raindrops glisten like liquid sunshine.

Shadows reveal things not apparent in ordinary light.

I read a book by Carlos Castaneda where his mentor, the Yaqui Indian, Don Juan, was trying to get him to 'see'. He told him to only look at shadows for one entire day. To ignore what he normally 'sees' and focus only on the shadows.

Life is neither black nor white, but many shades of gray. I try to apply that rule. Too many times you can stay rigid in your thinking. But if you open your mind to the possibility that maybe there are other ways of looking at things, at 'seeing', you create a way to view the world with much more ease.

Problems are easier to solve. You become much more accepting of other people's views. There are many ways of looking at things.

Great works of art are created in just such a way. Opening your mind to not only what is obvious, but also to the hidden meanings of the shadows. And in doing so, you really get to 'See the Light.' Because if not for the shadows, there would be no contrast, no illumination, no focus.

We live in a world of many contrasts. You can choose to look at the world in only one way. Or you can open your mind to the many possibilities.

This time of year reminds me of the many ways of 'Seeing the Light.'