The Spaciousness of Time
Abbey of the Artist has an amazing post on photography as a sacred practice.
We are moved when we touch the eternal and timeless. There is a sense of spaciousness in moments. Art and spiritual practice are how we find this moment of eternity, or even better, how we allow the moment to find us. There are many moments waiting for us each day, prodding at our consciousness, inviting us to abandon our carefully constructed plans and defenses.
The task of the artist is to cultivate the ability to see these eternal moments again and again. In this way, we are all invited to become artists.
It’s a beautiful and moving piece of writing. Checkout the whole post here. What struck me most was the line “There is a sense of spaciousness in moments.” The conventional notion of time always seems lacking to me. The whole “tyranny of time marching forward” must be more elastic than we are lead to believe.
Our sense of time is constricted by our lack of connection to the present moment. We live in our judgments about how things are going and what we wanted to happen instead of in what is actually is. The heaviness of our judgments create a narrow canyon for time to pass through. Just as when a river is forced to narrow it rushes by at an alarming pace, so to does time. As we release our judgments and attachments, there is more space for us to breathe and act, and more connection to what is. Time spills out like a wide, meandering river on a summer’s day.
Image source: Ken Corbett (Thanks!)
Making art requires us to enter this present moment and that is why it is such a gift to be an artist. We cannot get away with ignoring the present and still allow our creativity to flood the world. We are blessed with awareness and cursed by resistance.
Update: The photo above turns out the be of Ken Corbett on the St. Francis River! Not a coincidence I think…
Related posts:
- Max Beckmann on the Artist and Danger
- Matthew Fox Explains Eckhart and the Artist
- Healing the Earth: The Calling of the Spiritual Artist?
Saturday, February 21st, 2009,
by Painter of Blue and is filed under "Artists, Blogs, Making art, Mysticism, Spiritual Path, Blogroll, Mysticism, Photography ".
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6 Responses “The Spaciousness of Time”
first, thanks for stopping by my blog!!! So glad we could ‘meet’.
I never really got the whole relativity of time until I really started pursuing art. It was then, wholy meditating in the process that is creation that I discovered the spaces in each moment.
wonderful post on this subject.
Brandi-
Welcome. I love hearing the experiences of other artists. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the link and very gracious words about my post. It is of course always a joy to know my words have resonated with another. Blessings to you, Christine
Welcome back! What a wonderful surprise to see that amazing icon picture of your over in my corner of the world. I have missed you since I came back to blogging, yours a was always such a wise and kind voice that gave me the support I needed so very often.
I’ve been in a bit of a fog of late and have not been able to respond to you (or the world!) like I have wanted. Time was playing all sorts of tricks on me… Thank you so much for the amazing metaphor of time and a fast running, narrowed river. It is such a brilliant, organic image that I am surprised I’ve never stumbled across it before. As it is, the best epiphanies are those that were crying out for our attention all along – if only we can open our eyes to the spaciousness.
So glad to have you back!
Blessings,
Marisa
What a lovely post and a lot to think about. I think our work becomes the most truest part of ourselves because you are so right we do have to stop and live in the moment and let whimsey or peace take over(In my case that is almost the only time I let the moment be). Thanks again for a wonderful post(let me agree with Marisa that it is wonderful to have you and your thought provoking blog back).
DebraAnn thanks for the idea of whimsy! I tend to get too serious. I need to remember the joy. That’s one reason why my family & I moved, to make room for more joy.
Marissa, So good to hear from you! I hope you are feeling better.
Christine, Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your inspiration!