When we come upon beautiful things,
they act like small tears in the surface of the world
that pull us through to some vaster space.

– Elaine Scarry

This quote gives voice to what I try to express with my photography. Large or small, vibrant or subtle, I see beauty in the world and it lights me up. I catch glimpses of that “vaster space” and I want to share it. It is my conviction that when we allow ourselves to be truly touched by the beauty which surrounds us our world expands and our connections (with ourselves, each other, and all that is) become deeper and richer and more transformational.

For some reason this quote seems connected to one of my favorite Rumi poems.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.  I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.

(translations by Coleman Barks)

Experiencing beauty offers us a path to that field where we can lie down together and share the magic and the wonder of being alive and being human.