Finding our path

One of the difficulties of the Photography as Meditative Practice is that we are required to present only one picture to the class. So the question always becomes which one do I pick? What image represents the path of my life: the staircase behind bars, the broad colorful steps with the closed pointy gate on top, the smooth cement slide in the playground, the complicated maze of handrails in the park, the arduous steps that never end or the beautiful path that traverses the ravine? (See slideshow at "Ravine in Berkeley" post.)

I choose the ravine because it represents a current journey and read this section of my meditative writing on paths.

We make our own stories. We find our own paths.

I found this one because I was bold one night and asked for company on a walk. Wanting to give something back, I showed my companion a long set of steps, which bordered a undeveloped ravine in the Berkeley hills. We were accompanied in that moment by a rambunctious dog and an owner thankful for our assistance in reigning in her pet's exuberance. She told us of a gate and a path that led to a beautiful waterfall.

Last Sunday, I pushed open that gate located about a third of the way up those steps, and ignored the private property sign because of her instruction. Around the first bend, posted signs read, "keep to the path, travel at your own risk, and leave nothing but your footprints." I proceeded with caution and invitation and soon sat on a 12-inch plank, straddling the ravine and contemplated the paths that had brought me to that moment.

A survivor, willing, daring even, to make my own way, asking for companionship, and refusing to give up my sense of love and harmony, this is my path. It leads me to experience God's beauty and spirit on earth.