While in Panama this past winter I walked a crescent beach one morning at low tide. Waves lapped over the sand and carved rivulets as the water receded back into the surf. As I looked closer, there were patterns in the sand left behind by each successive wave. A constantly changing miniature tableau of forest trees, earth and sky lay before me. Captivated by the magic of it, I worked bent over the waves and sand until I ran out of space on my camera’s memory card.
I’m excited to share my discovery with you. There are times I am overtaken by the natural world and am pulled into something deeper, more profound and magical – trees struggling toward water and light, wind pushing and swirling their limbs as they reach skyward. The beauty and balance of trees I have observed can also be found wherever these elements are at play. In the same way plants take shape, on a grandeur scale, hills, streams, mountains and rivers find equivalent forms. Growth unfurls in similar symmetrical spirals as seen in a tiny nautilus shell or a spiraling celestial galaxy – think Fibonacci Sequence.
The same centuries long forces of nature working to carve the landscape were creating a small facsimile right before me in infinite unique variations. These phantasmagoria of hidden worlds were ephemeral, lasting only as long as the next wave. Infinite beauty born and washed away in an instant.
