Light Forms

Originally published December 1st 2023
(I have made minor edits before publishing here).

There are intrinsic qualities of light that travel across continents and move between cocoons of time, housing memories of far-off existences. Consider, if you will, these instances:

A soft ochre glow from the late afternoon sun settles for a while on a highly textured wall, from which the imprints of a meadow, scattered with delicate wildflowers swaying gently in a summer breeze, emerge;

A dazzling ray of sunlight, iridescent with all the colours of the visible spectrum, mirrors the shape of the window panes through which it enters the room. As it takes up residence on cream floor tiles, this transient light form brings into existence days rich with innocent hopes and times spent walking along wide, uncluttered pavements, surrounded by the elegant beauty of white stucco buildings overlooked by sturdy plane trees reaching upwards, seemingly never-endingly;

The early morning sunlight filtering through the leaves of unfamiliar trees forms pools of pale amber light that ripple across the loose stones of an uneven path. Within the soft edges of these pools lives the warmth of evenings spent wandering along paths adorned with the dainty beauty of daucus carota and ammi majus, all the while immersed in the scent of jasmine flowers trailing along garden walls.

Though these experiences have long since dissolved by way of material impermanence, they nurtured a flow of curiosity and independent progression that lives on in a vitality not restricted by predetermined geographical, time-based or purely logical boundaries. A vitality that thrives in the subtleties of the natural world, the placement of soft, muted colours by a carefully considered brushstroke on stretched linen and the motif in a music composition. There are, of course, other examples of where this vitality could be found (depending on your perspective) but these are the ones that bring the most peace, and with which there is most affinity here.

In times of great upheaval and uncertainty music is a truly powerful balm for navigating through life in the shadows of a diminishing capability. Perhaps you would care to listen to Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C minor—a work of exceptional beauty that offers a space to move through melancholy, to find solace and eventually experience an awe-inspiring triumph, much like a victory in life over times of devastating loss and change.

Sincerely, in truth
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