
Last week my Miksang friend Diane and I were exploring light and it was a challenge for both of us. Everything is light. Every photograph is just a capture of light. So how do you focus on the single element of light when everything is light?
As I was contemplating that question, the black and white checkerboard in this image absolutely stopped me. It called to me from a distance as I walked the streets of Boulder, before I realized that it belonged to one of the most beautiful young women I've ever seen. Why this incredibly gorgeous, young woman was standing on a sidewalk holding a sandwich board, I'll never know. But, I asked her if I could take a picture and she said yes. I was tempted to take a picture of her beautiful face but what had stopped me was the crisp black and white of her pants and as I focused on that I also noticed the long sensuous curve of her shadow.
This photo pleases me because I think it captures a moment of beauty without an obvious label or quick reaction that we might have if it were a more typical photo of a beautiful woman. It is also an honest representation of the perception that stopped me which makes me feel that I am part of the image ... or that it is a part of me ... a small piece of myself that I managed to capture in an image.
I recently made a comment to a friend that I was starting to remember who I am and as I said the words, they sounded odd. It seemed like a strange thing to say ... I didn't know I had forgotten but perhaps these Miksang moments are giving me a way to remember, a way to pull back the pieces of myself that have gone spinning off during these past few years.
I love that zigzagging jolt of black and white and then, to look closer and see it following the curve of a woman's body: just wonderful. It absolutely dominates the image.
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