Quotations
End of the year reflections have me looking back over some of the quotations I’ve gathered along the way.
Silence, spirituality, and photography
Many of my photographs come from walks over the same path, over and over. In Indianapolis, it was walking to and from work. I lived about 2 miles from Riley Hospital for Children. I developed the habit of always carrying my camera with me. I was quite conscious of seeing more and more detail emerge from walking the same path. That made me look more closely intentionally, challenging me to look more deeply. This became a spiritual experience. I realized I was waiting in silence to be shown more clearly what I was looking at. I would look inward to help me see outward.
This helped me listen for the Spirit more closely during Quaker meetings for worship, where Friends sit in silence together. There is a circle of silence between photography and spirituality. Below are some images I made with the help of artificial intelligence to try to envision this.
Carrying my camera all the time meant others would see the War is Not the Answer button on my camera strap.
Some of my own quotes are about photography:
I listen with my eyes
Learn to see what you are looking at
Photography is a spiritual practice
Meeting for worship with attention to photography
Zen photography
I like this quote by W.B. Yeats, which I also think of in terms of photography. The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.
That stillness and vastness that enables the Universe to be, is not just out there in space…it is also within you. – Eckhart Tolle
Close your eyes and follow your breath to the still place that leads to the invisible path that leads you home. – Mirabai Starr
In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence. – Robert Lynd
We Indians know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for us, silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were trained in the ways of silence, and they handed over this knowledge to us. Observe, listen, and then act, they would tell us. That was the manner of living. -Ella Deloria
Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come. –Greta Thunberg
Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world. - Dean Spade
My activism did not spring from being black. Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values instilled in me by the grandparents who reared me… Those values were based on the concept of a single human family and the belief that all members of that family are equal. – Bayard Rustin
Capitalism has violated the communities of marginalized folks. capitalism is about the value of people, property and the people who own property. those who have wealth and property control the decisions that are made. the government comes second to capitalism when it comes to power. In the name of liberation, capitalism must be reversed and dismantled. meaning that capitalistic practices must be reprogrammed with mutual aid practices. -Des Moines Black Liberation
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something. -Neil Gaiman
But to do the truth, to live a life that enforces what we once had, a life and culture that made a millennia of humanity possible to thrive, is to be at war with what has defined and destroyed this world for too long. -Ronnie James
