Archive for May 23rd, 2010
Playing With Distractions
Often when I am walking through fields and come up a slough here on the Canadian prairies, I will see ducks and other water birds. Getting close enough for a photo is not as easy as one things, especially when the birds are hunted by men with rifles in other seasons. This sometimes forces me to take photos from behind cover such as this photo. It is all about being cautious and respectful.
As the time for my SoFoBoMo project approaches, I find myself wondering what I will actually do for the project. My original idea for using the rear-view mirror has lost some of its appeal because it calls for so much planning, almost staging of each shot. Another idea involving mountains becomes a possibility, as well as a project based on the prairie slough. I even have a project based on one woman and anima sitting at the back of my mind – regardless, I seem to now be less ready than I was a month ago.
Getting back to the photo, it might appear that I am a patient person, one who is able to pause and allow things to develop without direct interference. Well, to a certain extent I am, but in truth, I don’t have a lot of patience or attention span. It isn’t that I get impatient, it is more that I become distracted resulting in losing the thread of attention. Most times this isn’t noticed by others.
Children can handle this “being present in body while not being too attentive to each of their words or actions” as long as the moments when one does attend, one is unconditional in that attention. Their is no judgement on the part of the child. And to observers who can’t see the wavering inattention due to following the wisps of thought, one would be judged as very patient.
I know that I treasure the distractions as they allow me to escape being trapped in a rut of routines. Being unable to contain the little sprites that point to things more numinous than concrete has allowed me to use this to explore, to play, and to experiment.
“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” (Carl Gustav Jung)
