As the fagus turns and the autumn days shorten towards the winter solstice, I realise we have arrived to the end of another season, another cycle. This signifies another loop around the sun, with us riding on planet Earth, oblivious of the fact we are hurtling through space at an astonishing speed.
Another year of life has passed, making mistakes, experiencing joy, sorrow, and learning a bit more about how the world all fits together. With the turning, I hope we have gotten wiser and at least somewhat less likely to make the same mistakes all over again.
I will leave you with some quotes I have recorded in my journal this year on a theme that has relevance to all of us: love.
Happy Mother’s Day!
-A.S. 10th of May, 2025, Brushy Creek.
Fagus, Alpine Plateau, Central Highlands. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, April 2025.
“Mature love is union under the condition of preserving one’s integrity, one’s individuality.”
- Erich Fromm
Plateau’s Edge, right. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, April 2025.
“There is not much we know for sure, but one certainty that will never abandon us is that we must remain with what is difficult. It is good to be alone, because being alone is hard; the fact that something is hard is one more reason for us to do it. Loving, too is good- because love is hard. For one person to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult thing we are asked to do, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is a mere preparation.”
-R.M. Rilke, Letter 7 to Franz Kappus, 1904
Plateau’s Edge, left. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, April 2025.
“The Love that moves the Sun and the other stars.”
-Dante
Plateau’s Edge, Panorama. Hasselblad 500CM, Portra 400, April 2025.