BEAUTY
Earlier this month I started taking an online vision quest photography workshop titled “Touching the Divine Through Photography.” Anyone who knows me, knows that photography is part of my spiritual practice and that I consider all of my images infused with Spirit. To quote the late Zen master photographer Minor White, “Spirit always stands still for the photographer IT has chosen.” I took this course to learn how Spirit works with other creatives. Are they open and receiving or seeking? What does it look and feel like for them? No judgment, just curiosity. Here I share my results of the first three assignments. Assignment #1 – make a metaphysical photo of my meditation space. This image combines two meditation spaces, the one in my home where I meet with clients and Spirit, and the seashore where the Divine meets with me. I want all who enter my sanctuary to feel grounded, calm, spacious, open and welcome.
Sacred Space ©LjW 2024
WISDOM
Assignment #2 – Make a photo that embodies the theme “Emergence.” I went down several conceptual paths with this. One graphic, one abstract, one obvious. Eventually, and quite anxiously, I decided to share this image and poem… because in fact, I am emerging this spring, not only from surgery in December, but from an almost 20-year journey integrating an NDE, and from one surgery to another along the same scar line. I chose my interfaith stole to frame my body, to honor these past two decades of training and my emergence as a spiritual guide and leader. A macro overlay of the actual mesh that now lives inside my body at my solar plexus, creates a shear layer of modesty. (click on images to enlarge)
Emergence ©LjW 2024
Emergence
Cut stem to stern to save my life,
I left my body on a magic carpet ride
toward the One– a full-on merging,
while doctors flushed the infection
with gallons of warm salt water.
The wound left open to heal from the inside out,
with a corset, battlefield tested by Napoleon.
What did I need to release and
what was coming in, that required
such a gutting, and a word with God?
Past life episodes of disembowelment
as a powerful Celtic healer,
a disloyal samurai. Cleaved over epochs,
and in the modern era, twice in two decades.
Journeys through time travel,
through mirror images, written words.
The wound inside growing, widening to a chasm,
until I found a weaver with golden thread
who would bind the tear of ages– sealing, healing,
the karmic debt once and for all. No more shame.
Bravely, I emerge among strangers,
now finding beauty in the scarred landscape,
where I once imagined a tattoo of a phoenix rising.
©LjWinston
Wild Writing Poem inspired by Kintsugi Again by James Crews
ALCHEMY
Assignment #3 – Make a poem, rather than a novel. Think mystery, haiku… This image allows the viewer to imagine their own poem or short story. It’s both ethereal and timeless. No boundaries. I think I’ve settled into the workshop mode now, and have let go any of the parts of me that were worried about “doing it right” or what others might think, and am having fun.
Poem ©LjW 2024
This process has also inspired me to work on a new book of photographs and poetry, currently titled Beauty as Medicine – Healing Our Spirit in Distressing Times, that I’ll endeavor to make available in the coming few months. Other excitement on the horizon– holding Beauty as Medicine workshops for The Chaplaincy Institute and for the Lichen Health Summit.
Until next month, whatever Spring Holy days you honor– Easter, Ramadan, Passover, Navaratri, or others– may they bring beauty into your life.
Peace, love and blessings,
Rev. Lisa
Spiritual Companion/Guide
Contemplative Photographer
Interfaith Chaplain/Eco-Minister
Free Photos at Pexels
Inspirational Photography Books at Blurb
Beauty calls us beyond ourselves and encourages us to engage the dream that dwells in the soul. –John O’Donohue
Thank you for sharing your photographs and writing. They are wonderfully enchanting and deeply thought-provoking. Blessings for all you do and for the encouragement you share in your work. Blessings and Love your way.