This morning I’m seeking solace in a recent photograph and memory in the aftermath of the atmospheric river and flooding that has wreaked havoc across southern British Columbia.
At this moment I have no words — only a heavy heart and deeply concerned mind about the present and near future impacts of the climate crisis.
Some people — including I, myself — might say these images aren’t worthy of being published because of the harsh light and my lens choice for wildlife photography. But reading David duChemin’s email this week changed my mind and boosted my confidence as it cogently reminded me why I love to go out into nature and make photographs with my 10 year old camera and nifty fifty.
“Learning, if we choose to do so from the shots that don't do what we hoped they would, is never failure.
Nor is pressing the shutter because it brings you joy to be out there or because using the camera makes you feel more alive, more aware, and more part of the scene in which you're immersed.”
And by tunnel I mean the dark, dreary, wet, chilly month that was October 2021.
Yellow-gold at Stanley Park, October 30th, 2021
A female mallard duck dabbles near the shore of Lost Lagoon at Stanley Park
A walk of faith at Stanley Park in early October
While I wandered along the trails, I listened to Emergence Magazine's podcast A Forest Walk – a guided practice by Kimberly Ruffin, which helped me experience a "continuous exchange of belonging" with the forest.
My eyes were delighted by komorebi, which is the untranslatable Japanese word for the effect created by sunlight when it is filtered through the leaves of trees (source).
As Suzanne Simard writes in the introduction to Finding the Mother Tree “The scientific evidence is impossible to ignore: the forest is wired for wisdom, sentience, and healing." I also can’t ignore my own experiences and so say in response “I know and believe!”
Shinrin-yoku is the Japanese term for bathing in the forest atmosphere or taking in the forest with our senses and thereby connecting more deeply with the natural world (source).
