Hope - Seeing the (nearly) Invisible

A few mornings ago, I saw a labyrinth on the water at the lake. The photo above is a combination of a high-contrast B&W (on the left) with the full color (on the right). On the right you’ll see how hard it was to see the patterns on the lake while the high-contrast on the left helps to see the rings. (Also, a bonus heron in the photo on the right too!).

It took just the right light as we were walking to see the rings that had formed on the lake (along with whatever it is made of - algae, dirt, pond scum, etc). It also took attentiveness on my part to be looking for something like this and then it took a bit more work to get it to be seen in the photograph.

In this week’s focus on hope through writing, it is a similar thing. As I shared in my previous post, the act of writing something down often helps to uncover things that might not be consciously on the surface. Instead, the process of writing it out helps to see that which might not have been obvious otherwise.

Even when you don’t know what to write, writing something else out can help as well. Sometimes, I’ll just handwrite out a poem that I read or a Psalm I am reflecting upon and when I physically write it, I begin to see things in it I would not have otherwise. There’s a wonderful quote attributed to EM Forster that says, “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” Some good truth in there.

Sometimes we may not even know the hope that is within us until we see it written out on a page.

Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed

PS - Today was one of the last church dog days at my current congregation...sniffle