Keyhole: The Object of Your Focus
“The world moves fast, changing everything around us with each new day. Photography is a gift that can keep us in a moment forever, blissfully eternal.” - Ali Novak
Our world does move fast, with events sometimes overwhelming us with their speed and ferocity and urgency. So much is happening that it's all too easy to lose focus of what it is we want to do with our limited time. The events of the world outside ourselves pierce our attention and compete for our emotional energy, but are usually well outside of what we can actually control. So I ask you to think about what you're focused on, for that will let you know what you truly value. As I wrote in my post on February 5, 2022...
Taking the liberty of translating into a modern voice the timeless wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, who was both emperor of ancient Rome and a moral man, he wrote in his personal journal the following lesson about focus:
“Concentrate every minute on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness… tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can — if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying life? If you can manage this, that’s all anyone can ask of you.”
On what are you focusing your attention? It’s an important question because, as the late philosopher José Ortega y Gasset taught, “Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.”
Clicking on the image will open it in full screen
‘Keyhole,’ framing the natural beauty of Gordons Pond in Cape Henlopen State Park in lower Delaware at sunrise on a beautiful autumn morning.
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