The Sunday Creative: Magnified

Aspen Bark, Cloudcroft, NM, March 2011

Given how the past two weeks have been, it figures it's Saturday and I'm just getting to this past week's Sunday Creative -- I did take this photo last Sunday, though, so that's appropriate, right? This week's theme is "magnified," and that's an easy one for me because I love how macro/close-up photography reveals things we don't usually notice at first glance. For me it also demonstrates the power (and necessity) of stopping for a moment to consider, on a deeper level than usual, the world around us. What seems like one thing on the surface, whether a tree or a person or an incident, will likely reveal itself to be much more complex when considered up close and personal. The photo above shows an aspen that, seen from further away, has seemingly smooth white bark that contrasts starkly with the deep blue mountain sky; looking more closely at this bark I see green moss, rust and golden lichens, and rugged scars marking this tree's long and varied tenure in a mountain forest. I know that sometimes we need to step back to "see the forest for the trees" (okay, I'm beating this metaphor to death), but I also see the importance and beauty that comes when pause and closely consider the trees in the forest. Everything is, and is not, what it seems; the closer we look, the more we see, both around and within ourselves.