Whispers of Trees: To Dream of Light

Last Updated on August 1, 2016 by Patrick

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Every photograph should be about light. Photography should not only describe light, but reveal it in its best manifestations. I think I’ve said this before, but I come back to this now.

To dream of light is to hope for what’s needed to be coming. I emphasize what’s needed and not what is wanted, desired, because it is the core, the essence of what is wanted, what is desired. This has been talked about for some time now. Very few people know the difference between needing and wanting. I have written about this in another article and I said that needing is what our universe, our microcosm is calling for, in order to do what has been called to do, in order to maintain its balance within and without, in communion with the “outside world”. If there is no balance inside of us, the universe, in general, is hurt, lacks something, needs something in order to function properly and must be provided.

Think about this. For example, in the far north of our planet, where there are six months of sunshine and six months of night, in those wintry long nights, when light is very scarce, when the sunlight doesn’t shine, people need to compensate for this need somehow. They use artificial lights imitating sunlight somehow. Without it, many of the natural functions of their organisms would not work, living them in great need, even want. Even their psyche would not function properly. Many experience anxieties, depressions, even suicidal states and many other things like these.

But need can also be transformed into want, where the psyche doesn’t experience what is needed for a long time. This way, need becomes want, personal, even subjective, but yet intimate and if accumulated within the imaginary boundaries of the mind they will tend to break them and overflow. Its only purpose is for people to see what can it become if the needs are not properly managed and put to their places.

To dream of light is to aspire to greatness, like the sun. This aspiration is at the core of both needs and wants, desires. Even if someone aspires to accumulate material goods, still, it is the aspiration towards greatness that drives this or that person. But what kind of greatness is that when people aspire to collect things that perish with the passing of time? What kind of need or want would drive them to become fascinated with the apex of their existing, when things are the most beautiful and glithering? The need of light, my friends. That is it. :)

Everyone wants light. And as I said above, we cannot function without the sunlight. Even our organic bodies need light in order to function properly.

In the psychological space this light is translated as understanding. Some people find solace in understanding. Other people yearn to tear apart the veils of mystery of life and death and storm the heavens in their spiritual conquest. But maybe all of us have been suppressing too many of our emotions, thoughts, needs and desires, and now we have to clean our inner homes, to make order in our thoughts, emotions, habits, putting them to their places, this belonging to this and that belonging to that. This is a clear statement of being clean and dignified, worthy.

For this, for example, I needed to go in Nature. The light in Nature is the light of understanding. Solace? Maybe. But mindfulness mostly. Quietness of a constructive creative kind. Contemplative always. :)