It’s cloudy here in North West Germany with clouds threatening to rain, and all feels ready to make a pause. Families are doing their last minute shopping and preparing for dinners at home with cozy lights, Christmas trees and gifts that get opened this evening. You can feel and see the excitement of children in their eyes.
It feels like a very good time to hit a reset button and settle into a contemplative place in oneself. For my daughter, it has always been the highlight (of several highlights) of the year and she counted the days till it finally arrived and the ceremony began.
I wish you all a healthy and peaceful Christmas and a gentle journey inwards if that is your aim.
Turkish beauty ~Water everywhere ~Have you had Turkish tea?~The hustle and bustle~After all the rain~
It rained most of the day today In Istanbul. Rain has this way of forcing it’s mood on you, doesn’t it? There is a sense of containment and going inwards, where if you had the choice, you would curl indoors with a book or bake cookies.
I love rain photography, when reflection, rain drops and moody skies abound. Istanbul delivers all that and more.
You can even find the smiles between all the grumpiness of bad weather if you search for them hard enough.
This year we have all lived to some extent the opening words of ‘Tale of two cities’, haven’t we?
Upheaval, breakdown of old systems, pandemic, loss, economic collapse, social and physical isolation, poverty, fear, uncertainty, extreme weather, unstable leadership and so much more…
Yet, somehow, something extremely bright filters through our planet at this time, this planet of duality. At the darkest of times the brightest of times have a chance to manifest. Hope is always here for a better world and an incandescent tomorrow. All we have to do is believe and look at history to prepare for our future in our present.
Wishing you all a peaceful holiday season. May we see peace, hope and sanity in the near future for this resilient human race.
There is a charm that can only be captured on a rainy day and a mood particular to that atmosphere of chilly raindrops, umbrellas and leaves blowing in the wind that I always long to photograph. It’s visual poetry that turns gloom into romance and magnifies the bit of light the day has against the dark background. I wouldn’t hide my camera from the rain, no, I would always choose to join it.
How perfect is a spiderweb? A little creature creating a mandala many times its size in a beautiful design that makes me gasp each time I see one. Even the rain falls in love with this great art.
How wonderful our planet can be if we only stop to notice.
The same place on a rainy day is not the same as it were yesterday. We are creatures influenced by our environment and something as small as our emotions can make the world a different place to be in on a day like today which is nothing like yesterday…
image taken on a wet pavement of walkers by reflected and flipped.