I wasn’t expecting this picture … ie I had been busy photographing on the side of the river in the picture and noticed these stones from afar, and got busy taking shots (none of which were good enough, I felt).
I came over to the other side of the river for a bit of food, noticed the stones again on the opposite bank and took one last shot, with little forethought.
But this time, the light was kinder, the framing better and the wind in my favour… At this moment, everything was in the right place. I liked the way the foliage moves in harmonious waves – just as the splash of yellow flowers contrasts with the band of shadow and impart a counterbalancing motion to the stasis of the stones, piled loosely on each other, but solid and graceful. To me, it’s a reflection of how I feel at my best.
And I began to think…
I’d also just enjoyed a long week’s annual vacation with my wife, including attending the culture and identity boost of our National ‘Eisteddfod’ – our Welsh language mega festival of performing music and drama, art, literature, etc, including a new drama designed by my daughter.
I was safe, well, loved and astounded again by the beauty of the natural world. During the Eisteddfod I’d had the opportunity to share with a few others about my prolonged experience of depression and how I was, at last, experiencing hope.
Without warning, sometimes without our being aware, our privileges and blessings and the love that sustains us are made plain.
But in depression, we can feel robbed of joy and being grateful is a struggle. Looking at this image and other pictures of mine, I’ve begun to discover objectively not just moments but reasons which help me better appreciate that I am alive for a purpose and have so many reasons to offer my thanks.
Which put me in mind of this, one of my mother’s favourite biblical verses (she also went through a breakdown and depression):
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”. Psalms 139:13-14 NIV.
(It’s worth reading the whole text to get the context.)
Please share with me your moments of rediscovering love, joy or hope.
[Location: northern bank of the Afon Marteg at Clas ar Wy (Glasbury) in Wales, a subsidiary of the Afon Gwy (River Wye), one of the UK’s best wild salmon habitats.]— Marc Evans
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