PHOTO: Reflections, Rowville, Australia
This is a photo of a place called "Rowville Lakes" in the neighbourhood where I live in Victoria, Australia. The place itself is nothing special, just a small area of man-made ponds to beautify the residential zone surrounding those ponds. In fact, if I had raised the camera a little higher, the image would have been spoiled by all of the houses in the background.
Putting the ugliness of the residential buildings aside, allow me to focus on just what's in the image above.
We are like the bird in the image: we live our lives oblivious of the effects we have on the world around us. The actions in our lives disturb the natural serenity and perfection of this world. Our actions and their consequences "ripple" out around us and touch everything and everyone near us, which then affects everyone around them, and so on. As the "chaos" of the world unravels, we just go on about our insignificant lives, paying attention only to what is in front of our faces (and sometimes, not even paying attention to that at all).
We live in a reflection of life. As we are mostly unconscious to what's really going on in the real world, our "experience" of life becomes a collection of memories of what might have happened when (and if) we were paying any attention. The reflection is not a clear and correct rendition of the reality that is the foundation for that reflection - it is a reconstruction of reality, and it contains "gaps". If the "gaps" cannot be filled then we will never have a true picture. It's the same with our lives - if we rely on remembering what we might have lived, we only remember parts and miss some critical pieces, which will leave "gaps" in our experience.
So, while we think we are gazing upon something beautiful, it becomes evident that it's only a reflection that gives us a glimpse of partial reality.
Is this really how we want to live and remember our existence?
Image: "Reflections", Rowville Lakes, Victoria, Australia. Copyright - Michael Beaton
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