Archive for the ‘Prague’ tag
Which Way? … no comments
I took this photograph in Prague two years ago. On a street that is much traveled but this little nook is probably only seen by the folks who live there or the garbage collectors. I love looking for little nooks and crannies when I travel to new places. I spent two weeks in Prague just wandering around …
I look at this photograph often, because I really like it, but also because there is something about it, something I couldn’t pinpoint until recently – a Life’s Little Dharma in photographic form.
Standing in the center, such as I was, there are two choices to move, well three if you consider standing still. One is to go up the stairs. Up, defying gravity, always a little more difficult than going down, which is the other choice. Although down has its difficulties too. Up towards enlightenment. Down towards … what? The same old thing?
If I look at the photograph in a symbolic way, up can mean up towards heaven, towards enlightenment. Up can get you into the clear blue of everything that is good and right with the world, but it takes quite a bit of effort to get there. Down just looks so dang easy, but what does down symbolize? The opposite of up? Hell (if you believe in it)? All that is bad and devious in the world? How easy is the choice of down, really? The effort of up makes up all worthwhile, right?
The cool thing about this particular spot, which makes it even more of a dharma lesson than I could ask for, is that both directions end up in the same place.
[photo c. 2007 kimberly kradel Image may not be used or copied for any purpose.]