I am completely immersed in Mark Nepo's book, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen at the moment. Since, for me, contemplative photography begins with and is crucially dependent upon visual listening, using the ear of the heart to open us to the wisdom of our surroundings.
Mark explains in the opening chapter of the book that if there are 7,000 living languages in the world today, then there must be 7,000 ways to listen. If I added the mysterious and hidden languages of the natural world, the languages of earth and wind and sea and all the rest of it, well, it could easily be hundreds of thousands of ways to listen! Oh, I can hear the linguists out there saying the natural world doesn't have "languages" as such, but I would respectfully disagree. Just because nature does not use words doesn't mean it isn't communicating with us all the time. Nature speaks to us in soft and subtle ways, but your mind must be silent - unengaged - to hear the profound lessons it has to teach. You must rely on your own impressions and listening from the heart.
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