The Yin and Yang of Water: Light and Shadow, Spray and Stone

Fluctuating Trunks

Spray and Stone

Amber

Shimmering Pool

Composition in Water and Stone

Taking It In

Water Pebbles

Wild Water, Sacred Stone

To me, metaphors like "The Tree of Life" or "The Perennial Stream" refer to God, to all of Creation, The One, the Universe, ALL, however you want to say it. It's the same thing: the generative power/miracle at the core of Life, that allows us to BE, as individuals and in diversity and relationship, connected to the larger scheme.

I see in all of nature (humankind included) the principle of differentiation and diversity, yet needing to, at the same time, stay aligned and empathic with The Whole.

A river flows downstream from the mountain above, as a singular, dynamic entity. But all its rhythms and patterns change as it turns, trickles, charges, and eddies over the changing terrain. As it is with the blowing leaves and the boughs on the trees.

We lose our personal power if we try to live it in a vacuum, isolated or unmindful of The Whole. Just as we lose our personal power if we attempt to guard or hoard it. We must interact, in concert with the larger truths of LIFE beyond our personal subjectivity.

I dedicate this post to all my blogging friends and especially to Max, because our discussions inspire me. You can read about paradox and duality, or Yin and Yang, at Wikipedia.

All text and images c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Sacred Patterns: Light Creates Shadow

When we take the time to really LOOK at things, age-old patterns are revealed to us. These are the patterns that transcend time and particulars of age, place and species. I see, in the late afternoon light molding these leaf portraits, hints of cosmic power that I cannot understand, but that I know has endured through the ages. I don't believe the diversity and order of the universe are just coincidences, borne of chance and random combinations of circumstance. I believe they are orchestrated by a higher intelligence beyond our comprehension. It disturbs me that humans have a need to provide distinct and rigid definitions of this power and to try to assert the truth of their particular conception. From our need to label things in order to provide ourselves a coherent and comfortable self-definition, comes war, misery, death and destruction.

What matters to me is that there is light and that miracles unfold at every level of the universe. What matters to me is that I believe in God. I sometimes feel the universe is crying at our inability to see the light. It's a paradox that light creates shadow, and people crying out for peace and security, create war. I believe in God, but not in the divisiveness of any dogma that is taken to extreme. Each leaf is different yet the same as all other leaves. Each human is unique and yet part of a larger humanity. When will we see that we are One Humanity?

The above images are"The Enigma of a Leaf," "Curls," and "Sacred Patterns," and will be available plain or framed at my Imagekind site http://lyndalehmann.imagekind.com/ or from me directly at www.lyndalehmann.com/ . All images and text c 2008 Lynda Lehmann. To view more of my work please visit www.lyndalehmann.com , where you can view more than 500 other images, both paintings and photographs.