A Year-End Gift to You
Dear Friends and Family,
As I sit to pen this letter, a swell of feeling surfaces. I have been combing through a few thousand images over these holidays to compile a collection for you as a year-end gift.
Each week for the past nine months, I have come to you with words of inquiry. Together, we explore questions about this, our shared human existence in these, our human bodies, on this, our shared Earth. We wonder together about life beyond the comfort zone, never quite defining what that means, but coming week by week all the same to the lived significance of it. And each week, more of you come to this Sunday letter with more of your presence, some of you sharing in comments or emailing me with such raw depth and self-reflectiveness that I linger on your words in absolute pause.
Many of you joined this journey in the summer as I prepared in Alaska to trek to the Arctic Ocean. Not one mile did I travel alone even on those loneliest of dirt roads. And when I turned toward home, you came with even more to say about this exploration that became ours together. It could be said that what we are creating here is an “intimate communion of thought.”1
When I walk with camera at the ready and an image appears, it is a moment of intimacy with the world as it is—its light and textures and mood and under- and over-tones of expressiveness just begging to be known. Whatever it is that captures me in a moment holds me breathless as I become intimate enough with that something for it to reveal itself completely. If I am not intimate with the world, the world holds back. Each image is a communion of thought.
In this way, these images are mutual revelation. With a few exceptions, most should be new to you. I have titled the compilation “Aliveness and Artifact” to re-present the aliveness of Earth and reflect artifacts as imago mundi for creative human expression and, too, as signification of ways that we trample upon and desecrate the Earth body, and ourselves in so doing.
The swell of feeling is a first pass of meaning-making about this pilgrimage from the stillness of home now and recognition that I am making meaning in real time with you. And so, while I may have been the one behind the wheel . . . or camera, it cannot be denied that you are integral to the journey then and now.
At the wonderful suggestion of one of my sons, the original thought was to have a local exhibit of images. But so few of you would be there! So, we might imagine together that when you click the door-handle image below, you’ll walk into a virtual gallery. I’ll meet you there in comments.
Ever in gratitude and with love,
Renée
Peggy Whalen-Levitt, personal conversation.
This helped me see the value of living again. Thank you :)
An "intimate communion of thought". That is a lovely phrase and concept. I guess I would add of beauty and of heart as well. For that is what you have created Renée and it is attracting more and more people who long for that communion. Whenever one endeavors to put something important out there, it's always a risk that it won't land and bear fruit the way one intends. But I think the risk is always worth it because the intention is what really matters; the intention to share and deeply connect with the other. We all tend to be rather risk averse; often stemming from feeling unworthy or inadequate, telling ourselves no one will care what we do, or it won't be good enough. Our lifetime "friend", the critical voice, always ready to pounce and deprive us of our birthright. So, taking the risk anyway is the key, and remembering that it really is the intention that matters, not the result of our desired actions. Thank you for initiating this communion and continuing to offer your deeper thoughts, wisdom and beauty. The photos are stunning; worthy of a gallery for sure. A great gift. "There is a community of the spirit; join it..." from Rumi.