"What Youth deemed crystal, Age finds out was dew."
-Robert Browning
There are many things in the world that can make you feel small:
a big train barreling toward you, the Grand Canyon, a photograph of the
universe. Today while I was out
photographing flowers, it was a drop of dew.
A single drop of dew made me feel small.
Through the camera lens, the drop of dew looked isolated and
cool. I began to think about my place in
the world and how important, or unimportant, I am. What have I contributed to the world? What have been my great accomplishments? What difference have I made?
It’s easy to feel down when you have been sick, and maybe
this is why I began questioning myself today.
After all, the cancer that I am trying to expel from my body right now
with chemo therapy started as a minute single cell. Having a disease like cancer can make you feel
very small and alone.
When I think of a drop of dew, and how small it is compared
to all the water in the world, it is easy to equate that to how small each of
us is compared to the universe. But everything
in the world has a size and a place. Everything
is connected. Everything has a
purpose.
Instead if considering the smallness of the drop of dew,
I
began to think about how one drop of water can fall from that leaf into a puddle
on the ground. Then that puddle can flow
into a creek, the creek into a river, and the river into the sea. The sea is full of tiny drops of water, each
one necessary to the whole. We are all
necessary.
With my camera, I try to capture the beauty of all of nature
and share it with others. And that is
enough for me to be a necessary part of this planet. I hope I never stop trying to present the
beauty I see all around me and that I am forever thankful for a God that
created each drop of dew that sat on a leaf, fell into a puddle, and eventually
flowed into the sea.
