Ceiling in the Cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral
Something I’ve been thinking about for a while is perspective. How we see things. How our view is affected. How we see things from different angles. The pic above is grass, very close up, taken by mistake when I put my mobile down in the garden.
This whole thing really struck me when I was in Canterbury recently and went on a candlelit pilgrimage of the cathedral. We spent some time laying on the floor and I was really struck by the enormity of the building, which is exaggerated when you simply look up.
Funny really as I’ve spent the last few weeks laying on the floor with my back. Staring at the cracks on the various ceilings I’ve lain under. Noticing the cobwebs in odd places. I can see the dirt under the sideboard, which hasn’t moved in years (it’s just too heavy), the lost piece of lego under the sofa, a lone piece of popcorn left from a movie night hiding just out of reach of the hoover. It reminds me of a test I left for a cleaner employed in a house my husband come lived in. An orange had fallen under a chair so I decided to see how long it would be before it was discovered (which would also mean the chair got hoovered under). In the end I think my husband moved out before the orange!)
Lying on the floor thinking (and when healthy)
Lying on the floor through necessity, and not at all healthy!
But I guess it wasn’t her fault, we see things differently and I am realising that more and more.
A view through the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral at dawn
The same scene can look different – at dawn & dusk for example; in black & white or colour; close up or far away; in full health or unwell; looking up or down; looking from different angles. Some friends of ours have ‘the picture game’ which comes out at Christmas – it is close up photos of every day objects and you have to guess what they are. Some are almost unrecognisable from their whole selves and yet how can that be?
I am reminded that often our view is tainted by our own ‘lenses’ – lenses formed by our experiences, our beliefs, that shape our points of view. And yet how valuable to just shift that angle, or wait an hour, or to lay down (metaphorically or otherwise!) and get a different picture, to see things another way. If only we all could do this from time to time, I wonder how life would be different?
I saw this branch years ago and in the light it looked like Jesus, broken, with a crown of thorns. Maybe I was having a ‘moment’ or maybe it was the light, the viewpoint, the thoughts in my head, who knows…
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