Over the last year and a half I have had the pleasure of corresponding with writer, photographer and nature-lover David Malinsky. David has a particular love for Great Basin Bristlecone Pines, which he calls “Old Friend in High Places”.
Here is a single sequence from one of his communications… a glimpse into the beauty David experiences in his exploration of these majestic tree-beings. If you are interested in joining the conversation and sharing your feedback and responses, contact David to join his listserve.
Daring to take a path towards what may be unknowable can be among the most noble pursuits of the human spirit. Known targets bring tangible opportunities for achievement, but also limitations; even a well-aimed arrow is forced to halt its arc, having reached a bullseye. Allow the arrow to be what it is, a tool for a particular purpose, but after your fingers release the bowstring do not let the confines of the arc define you. It was what you did, but only a small piece of who you are.
Without narrowing the focus on the bullseye, there can be so much to see, much that will be missed if our sights are too confined. You do not have to reduce all of this to a single place; there is room in your consciousness for all of it, if you allow it in.
It is in taking a path beyond established targets that you begin the journey of yourself, a path whose first steps may appear as though on the way to a “Where”, but as you venture will almost magically turn into as much a “Who”, person and place becoming one. When you feel something inside of yourself growing with each step, and your developing senses appreciating what surrounds the path even more, then you are on the verge of the most important discovery you can make, and any notions of maps can be discarded. Your path has no end, for both you and Nature are constantly evolving, and it is in that trust of Nature that you can place yourself, and explore the labyrinths ahead filled with the joy of anticipation, instead of trepidation.
Once you develop that trust, both of Nature and of yourself, when you come across what appears to be a darkness you do not fear. That darkness is only a place that is currently without illumination, and should you venture forward with an open spirit, your path may well take you to where it was intended to all along – the place where it is you that are the light.
[…] I just posted one of my favorite visual/written sequences on Great Basin Bristlecone Pines from writer, photographer and nature-lover David Malinsky in the ICE (International Community for Ecopsychology) blog. […]