Buildings and Souls
I had the tundra all to myself on this beautiful June evening. Trail Ridge Road had not yet opened due to a record level of snow. After shooting sunset at Rock Cut I began making my way back only to find that the sky became even more beautiful. I quickly climbed up a snowbank and began searching for compositions. The simplicity of this snow-filled tundra with pink and purple clouds above expressed something of the solitude I felt this evening.
Photo © copyright by Erik Stensland.
To create a house, a road or a barn requires a very pragmatic, studied and linear approach. It requires research, mathematics and detailed drawings that are precisely followed. To do otherwise would be foolish because our physical world must be approached from a physical perspective using its laws and tools. There is great clarity and reliability in the physics that underly our daily interactions with the physical world. We ignore them at our own peril.
Yet the internal life seems to operate on a completely different set of underlying principles. They are as different as classic mechanics is from quantum mechanics, appearing strange and inexplicable. We find that our rational scientific principles simply do not work in this sphere of life. The development of the human soul occurs along a winding and foggy path through the hardships and joys of life. No one takes the same path, but all of us encounter crossroads where we are given the opportunity to head towards real meaning, wholeness and belonging. It's at these crucial points that we must agree to let go of our accumulated baggage and head in the direction of Love, which seems to reside at the heart of all things.
