A Secret Place is a meditative series. It was exhibited at the ArtPoint Gallery in Noordhoek, showcased as the featured artist of the month.
It is a meditation on trees and how they reflect so much of who we as humans are, or rather, could be. Although taken on the Noordhoek Common which is a very public place, it holds many secrets. It is a place of reflection and meditation for many.
Take time to enjoy this series of photographs.
Prints are for sale on request.
When I am among the trees
When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, "Stay awhile." The light flows from their branches. And they call again, "It's simple," they say, "and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine."
Mary Oliver
Part of it is observing oneself more impersonally . . . When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, “You’re too this, or I’m too this.” That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them as they are.
Ram Das
