The Cosmos In Your Shadow

There is something I find so beautiful about this little pool, below this tree. The tangle of underwater moss and growth that looks just like a photo of deep space. The thick furrowed bark, the slow creep of moss, the soft embrace over it's callous skin. The detritus and debris, fallen, gathered, and some how, come together. It took me a long time to notice it though.

I took this photo a few days ago, and the more I mulled it over as a possible entry to the latest round of #amazingnature the more I felt the beauty of its depths. All of this beauty was only thrown into perspective by the shadow/reflection of the tree. So many times I must've glanced at it on my way past, and saw only the shadow over the water, (or depending on the time of day the reflection in the light,) not pausing to look closer and what lay beneath. I can't help but think how true that is on a wider scale. It's easy to be distracted by our own reflection, by what matters to us, getting caught up in ourselves, and equally, it's easy to not see the beauty for the shadow. I am always inspired by the redemption of nature. In the death of the tree, in the slow decay of bits of leaf and twig fallen, something else is taking form. I couldn't resist sharing the two fragments of poetry that thinking about this picture brought me to.