Photographs are mementos, reminders, keepsakes of that one special moment or occasion which we’d like to capture and preserve for a life time. Held precious because it transports us back to a particular experience, as simple as it might have been, to re-tell the story of the where, when, how and what. Ever a bright nostalgic smile is revealed with each sign of recognition. Almost always it is, that they are, those instantaneous flash moments of beauty, thrill, victory, goodness and sometimes just plain pure pleasure. Keeping the good and discarding the unwanted is a trend only but natural; not of the snaps and pictures alone do I speak of, but life’s many circumstances, situations and conditions. Often here, does the shake and shrug- off beget a response positive and effective. However, many are they that fail the going above it, around and under it, leaving us with none else but the going through it.
No, not the torturous self- sacrificing to-gain-martyrdom-kind; but the accepting non-resisting, savouring what- best- you- can, one.
Tramping along the ‘long and winding’, pebbles of wise teachings I have been picking, along with the descending mantel of discernment gradually but surely sparking jolts of perception on me; leading me today to recount a more recent occurrence, one of a few, with notable revelation as I see it.
Load-shedding or Power failure, whichever stands rightful, I could say was once a feature fairly common, but which I could strongly vouch to be fast fading to a ‘had been’ until a sudden black-out ‘hic’.
Minutes stretched to hours, and onto days, turning into a week and more. Life in our area had come to an almost grinding halt with 2400 hours of no electric supply.
The grouch in me was awakened. The snarl of irritability was only a snap of a finger away.
Almost automatically before crossing danger zone, an alarm was alerted.
I picked up the signs quickly. The dark gave no un-wind television entertainment or soothing music but on my platter was served a free for-no-reason-at-all dinner by soft candle-light; no work at the computer but a good catch up on missed- out early beauty sleep; sunlight in plenty during the day for some solar charge and rain in the evening for comfortable sleep- in weather; Less on-line chit-chats, to double my creative pursuits.
Not willed or controlled by me, not captured through camera lens, only left to be enjoyed, the past ten full days and nights remain engraved in my mind, appreciative to have found blessings.
Slip into life’s dole of things out of sync and off-beat when you can’t fight it, sidle into it gently and receive the goodness that flows quietly alongside is the message. I’ve come out of this unasked for drudge unscathed and proud to proclaim, twice as much enriched by the moment given me.
