Imagination

Imagination is a quality that enables photographers to visualize what their images will look like when they have finished working with them, using whatever software they use to optimize their images. Imagination also opens my eyes, so that seemingly ordinary scenes take on a special meaning, similar to the way that people look at clouds and see figures in them, or the way an everyday occurrence, such as a sunset or the flowering of a tree or a softly lit evening scene, can suddenly grab one’s heart.

Imagination allows me to be open to possibilities, to new insights and new interpretations. Imagination allows me to hope. Such openness and hope are valuable qualities that affect not only my photography, but my everyday life.

Imagination in the spiritual realm enables me to be aware of the possibilities of God’s call to me to live my life in the spirit of Jesus. Imagination helps me see the presence of God in the world around me, not in the sense of making it up, but in the sense of being more aware of, more present to, the deeper meaning of things.

The photographer tries to express this awareness in images. The believer tries to express this awareness in a grateful dedication to living out God’s call to be a person who seeks peace, justice, and love, aware of God’s loving presence in creation.

“What is grace?” I asked God. And He said, “All that happens.” Then He added, when I looked perplexed, “Could not lovers say that every moment in their Beloved’s arms was grace? Existence is my arms, though I well understand how one can turn away from me until the heart has wisdom.” St. John of the Cross