{beauty breather: a photographic pause for rest}
Join me in a guided visual meditation - an invitation into noticing the wilderness within and without while making space for the fullness of our humanity. These beauty breathers are collections of my nature photographs, part of Notes From the Wilderness.
I am in Western Canada and experience four distinct and rather extreme seasons. This cycle is integral to my experience. I acknowledge this frame of reference may not be familiar to everyone yet I hope you will still be able to enter in and feel welcome.
You can return to each beauty breather as often as you desire. Notice what is the same and different in how you experience the words and images.
If you’re wanting to slow down but find yourself rushing through, try setting a timer (I really love the Insight Timer app.) Go at whatever pace work for you.
Meet yourself with kindness and gentleness. Let curiosity lead.
Today’s beauty breather centres around the prairie crocus, the images inserted among a poem written with her as my muse. Let the poem draw you into each photograph, and see what emerges for you. Thank you, as always, for being here.
inhale
exhale
I found delight
in the folds of a prairie crocus.
I searched for her
pale purple sepals
the first to emerge
in the mess of winter’s aftermath.
I pursue her
eager for the sign
it is time to open
time to be seen.
She grows where the ground lies
exposed and windblown
as if to audaciously claim
I will bloom right here.
The hue of her beauty
a hymn of renewal
her woolen face unafraid
of its softness.
Do not dare to name
her vulnerability delicate
she has chosen
to be the herald.
Coaxing a garden
out of the sleepy earth
into burgeoning abundance
as her flower fades.
inhale
exhale
How utterly beautiful. Thank you Erin x
thank you, such a timely moment to pause and breathe. so beautiful.