Photography as a way to savor life
Every photo reminds us of all the beauty around us.
Anaïs Nin wrote, “We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection.” I can say the same about photography. The first time I experience beauty, the moment is intense and richly satisfying to all of my senses. The second time is more like an echo: it doesn’t stimulate all my senses to the same extent as it did originally, but I’m able to savor that moment for much longer.
Every day in Florence I bask in my surroundings: I walk along the Arno, delight in the sights, smells, and sounds around me, catch sunrises and sunsets, stroll through the streets and piazzas, peruse the churches and museums, visit the gardens, and glance up at the sky to admire the clouds. I need not run after beauty; I only need to stop and embrace it.
I might see beauty with my eyes, but I feel beauty with my entire body. The effect that beauty has on me is so strong that it cascades through my heart, mind, and soul. Beauty has a way of uplifting me and my energy like nothing else. Every time I am exposed to beauty, I am reminded that my ability to experience it is relative to the extent to which I am open to experience it. When I see little beauty around me, I know it’s because I am not open to it.
