Gaining
Perspective
“Shadow
is the obstruction of light. Shadows appear to me to be of supreme
importance, because, without them opaque and solid bodies will be
ill-defined; that which is contained within their outlines and their
boundaries...will be ill-understood unless they are against
a background of a different tone...”
Leonardo
da Vinci
Did
you know that perspective is everything? I have arranged the seating
on my porch into an oval, and I like to take a different position
each day. Now that it's summer, most of what I see in any direction
is green leaves, but across the way, a couple of streets over, I see
the roof of a house I pass every day. I've never noticed the red brick
chimney climbing up the front of that house until this morning.
Changing perspective allows us to see what we have not seen before.
Shadows,
as da Vinci says, provide definition. Sometimes when I'm
photographing an item for eBay, the camera will tell me to raise the
flash, but when I do, the light is too intense. The item appears
washed out; its colors not as bold and bright as they really are. Too
much light is no better than too much darkness.
Everything
can't be light. It is shadow that gives depth, it is darkness that
provides background so light can be seen. The same is true for
people. We run from that which is dark within us, we ignore it, and
pretend it does not exist. But, if we identify only with our light,
we become...well, mono-chromatic...ill-defined, flat. Shadows are not
bad, but when ignored, or pushed into the unconscious, they do grow
darker. We need to adjust our perspective. We don't want to live from
that place of darkness, but we do need to be aware of it, and
familiar enough with it to recognize it as our own.
Today,
consider perspective. Try looking at things from a different angle.
Notice the shadows—within and without.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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