Oak Maine
On a brilliant summer’s day in the late afternoon I went for a walk along the banks of the Kennebec River. The crystal waters beckoned me in and soon I found myself swimming upstream. Drying off on a rock I petted a vein that had quartz running through it. As I closed my eyes I let the sun bathe me, knowing one day six months from now I’d sit in the window and close my eyes letting the sun warm me when the temperatures outside would turn me into an ice sculpture.
Nature has a tremendous power to heal, to put our minds at ease and transform the mundane into the magical.
Picking up my camera I ambled up the ole railroad trail, content.
Energized by the swim and feeling at peace my eye caught sight of a small oak. The tree’s parent stood proudly over it and I wondered if the giant tree wished it could move slightly to the left so more sunlight would reach the sapling. But the child seemed content as it apparently had been twisting its branches as it grew to acquire more sunlight. I pondered how such a tiny tree with such huge leaves wasn’t weighed down by them.
I imagined myself as the oak, just starting on my life’s journey, reaching for the sun. I heard the shutter of my camera and felt it was an extension of my thoughts. I felt my body sway in the breeze as the oak’s leaves did and another series of photos were taken. A gust of wind hit the great giant oak first spiraling it’s leaves in a dance, allowing more sunlight to stream on the sapling as it’s branches and leaves twirled in a dance. The last image was recorded and Oak Maine emerged.
Hundreds of years from now the sapling may replace the proud giant watching over another generation and my photo will have been just a brief moment of time.
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Photographic art by Ramona du Houx 