Beauty is sometimes in what you see,
sometimes in what you imagine…
I have always been drawn to images with lens flare,
rain spatter,
things that make me have to work to make sense of the image. Or, when I am lucky, only let me glimpse the barest hint of an idea or form that lets my imagination play, a splash of red through a rainsoaked windshield and I am imaging a rain coat, pale rings a hazy white chain of street lamps, or christmas lights, or fireflies…
I am more dappled sunlight than shadow, but find myself drawn to twilight, that time when the world comes close and the darkening sky brings a sense of intimacy to spaces, to light, to time.
There is magic in the in between times, dusk, dawn. They are times of possibility, times for dreams to exit or begin.
Sometimes when I am falling asleep, dreams from a different day come back to visit. Fragments usually, a tiny snippet of a scene or mood. It is almost as if as that door prepares to open once again, motes filter through the cracks, hinting at a permeability into this second life, this dream life, this life so secret it is often hidden even from the dreamer.
I stumbled across this beautiful image by Mike Cullen, used here with gratitude and with his permission. He does things with light and with the abstraction of form through deliberate blurriness that simply delight me.
Dusk is one of my favorite times of day too. It’s almost like the world is slowing down and allowing me a breath..a sigh, a rest. But I am still awake enough to laugh out loud or smile a big smile…hug a big hug. Before I sleep.
that picture and image are so beautiful.
…I have the very same dream experience you speak of- as if I am starting where I left off the night before… like opening a book that has been put down for the day and diving back in… it’s such a comforting feeling really- no matter what happens during the course of the day, I always return to this soft dark place with an entrance that only I can use…
I have a slightly different dream experience…as I am waking, I feel as though I am wholly awake but actually I’m half dreaming and taking part in the dream…peering through half-open eyelids at all the possibilities of that dream but knowing I am going to wake properly any time soon…and I do, then the dream is over, sadly so, sometimes. Gladly so, occasionally.
I once took a photo through the windscreen on a rainy night (I was not driving, I don’t drive!) and the image was more interesting for not being clear. It fascinated me, still does, now I see why! Thanks Kate.