Pathways

(Peat bog trail at Quail Hollow. Photo by Robin. 2007)

I’ve been spending a lot of time sorting through my photos on the computer. I’m a very lazy photographer in that I haven’t had many of them printed. This sorting business is going to take a long time.

I’ve noticed a trend in my photography, something I might not have noticed if I hadn’t been so lazy and forced to spend an entire day staring at the fruits of my photographic labors. Every group of photos contains at least one shot of a road, a pathway, a river, a window, a gate, or a doorway.

I wonder if that reflects my nature as a Sagittarius. We’re known for having itchy (as in wanting to travel) feet. I do enjoy traveling, that’s for sure. I don’t enjoy the packing and the angst and anxiety (aka fear of flying) I go through getting ready to travel, but the traveling itself is always a fun adventure.

This pathways and portals trend might also be a reflection of my favorite activity: walking and hiking. I like nothing more than to set out on a long walk or hike. I have dreams of going on walking tours where we spend the entire day walking through some countryside or along the coast of any country. Like Forrest Gump and his running, sometimes when I start walking I just want to keep going and going, see where it leads me. Walking is, in my opinion, the best way to travel. It slows you down so you can truly see and enjoy the scenery and the moment. I like having my feet on the ground and in touch with the earth (which might partially explain my fear of flying).

In spending a day looking at a lot of these photos, they also remind me of meditative journeys. I look at the photo and in my mind I begin to wander the path in front of me, letting my spirit lead me where it will. This type of journey opens up whole new worlds for me, when I allow myself the freedom to travel in this way. It’s not always easy to let go, or to feel safe enough to let go. But when I do, oh…what a wonder it is!

I frequently keep this type of photo as my desktop background because these images are so calming to me. But they’re also exciting, because who knows where any pathway or portal may lead?

Man takes root at his feet, and at best he is no more than a potted plant in his house or carriage till he has established communication with the soil by the loving and magnetic touch of his soles to it. Then the tie of association is born; then spring those invisible fibres and rootlets through which character comes to smack of the soil, and which make a man kindred to the spot of earth he inhabits. –JOHN BURROUGHS, The Exhilaration of the Road, Winter Sunshine, 1875