Archive for November 22nd, 2009
Winter’s Cold Presence
This is the last photo in the Northland series, photos from 2005. I took this photo on a weekend, like most of the autumn and early winter photos. Weekdays were filled with work in the school, the band office and the education office. During the week, what little time was left was usually found in darkness as darkness came earlier in the north. In this photo, I managed to catch children at play in the snow even though it was quite cold outside. Being so far north, the snow never got too deep because of the cold temperatures. Yet, in spite of the cold and the weak light, there was still a desire, a spirit for play.
My experience of the northlands in 2005 was more about approaching the soul than it was about being the Education Manager for the reserve. It was as if, the process which was rough and at times brutal, was an illustration to me of the power of alchemy, of the work of transformation. And I emerged transformed. I emerged perhaps more aware of my own soul.
… soul … eludes reductionistic definition; it expresses the mystery of human life; and it connects psychology to religion, love, death, and destiny. It suggests depth … (Thomas Moore, cited in Hillman, Blue Fire, 1989, p. 5)
