The Stillness Between the Waves

I so wish there was a way that a photograph could have reflected what I saw this afternoon.  As we were finishing up our late afternoon hike, Scout and I came to this beautiful small pond up the hill from the Montreat Conference Center.  (It is the one by the prayer labyrinth for those familiar with this beautiful place).  It was near sunset and no one else was about.  There was a soulful silence and stillness in that surrounded us and the warm light of the fading sun gave a beautiful soft light.  But that’s not what ultimately enthralled me.  It was the patterns in the water of this small pond.  A small stream fed the pond on one side and created small ripples in the water spreading out.  The water shined with silver and black tones as the ripples gently moved across.  But in-between the small waves were spaces of what looked like moving mirrors.   These spaces looked perfectly still even as they moved right to left across the pond.  Periodically they were broken up by a water bubble coming up from below or the movement of something towards the far edge of the pond but they mostly moved unhindered across.

Scout had sat down behind me by this time and I simply stared at this beautiful pattern before me.  I prayed to be those spaces between the waves - a space of stillness and reflection but also still moving - not static and unchanging, but instead moving and vibrant.  There was no way to adequately bring this into a photograph or video so I hope that you get a sense from the photo that I am sharing but even more so from what I have tried to describe.