Blurred Reflections

This little 'snap' was taken last year in Kenya at Lake Nakuru. The solitary pelican about to land among all the flamingos seems to be frozen in mid air, or even stuck onto the photograph at a later date as some afterthought, but believe me it is genuine enough. [I know because I was there and I took the photograph.]

The only sense of movement comes from the reflections which are pretty blurred.

All of this reminds me of a well-known verse in the Bible:
"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." [1 Corinthians 13:12 NIV]

I was reflecting on the photograph and the Bible verse because I received very sad news from a friend in Kenya. Her 100-year old grandmother has just died in a house fire, which may have been started deliberately. There are suggestions that the full story may be even more horrific. Of course, we don't have to search far to find horror stories anywhere in the world. I was going to say 'especially these days' but on reflection I suspect it has always been this way. The 21st century has no monopoly on brutality or injustice.
The obvious question is 'why?' Unfortunately, there is sometimes no obvious answer,and we just have to learn to live with the questions until the mist clears and we're no longer looking at the poor reflection but at reality itself.
I once wrote a poem after a particularly tragic occasion which summed up my helplnessness at the time.

Stillborn at Christmas


Cold was the day.
Bitter and cold were our hearts.
The sun shone, clear and bright
but, strangely, without warmth.
we felt forsaken by the Universe,
a gathered knot,
around the loose-ends of the little life
we never knew.

And we buried
the dreams and hopes
that had unravelled.

The flesh became a word
that would not dwell among us.
and I, the spinner of words,
had nothing left to say.

© Iain D. Cunningham