Water, water everywhere...

This photo, also taken on Monday, is especially for Cherie as she apparently has a thing about water (see comment on yesterday's post.)
It is the River Clyde - though it could be almost any river. To me, it was simply an abstract picture of reflections in water with subtle moving shapes and tones.
Like Cherie, I find water fascinating.
In a deep pool, when the surface is still and the reflections are sharp, it can be very soothing and comforting. Gentle wavelets lapping on a stony beach can be equally calming and peaceful. And, if you are used to living by the seashore, even the regular pounding of waves on rocks can be reassuringly relaxing.
The house (i.e. tenement slum) in which I was born was right next to a high waterfall and the stream ran beside our house (although I think a lot of it also ran through the foundations of our building which was always damp: a dampness which gave me rheumatism in my knees when I was a child.) Whatever the drawbacks of living right next to that waterfall, I always found the sound of it reassuring.
I even like it when the sea gets angry and batters the coast with elemental force- though I certainly would not want to be sailing on it in stormy weather and I admire those who do.
When I lived in Ayr for a couple of years, at the start of my ministry, I used to head down to the quiet beach at Seafield on a Monday morning, whatever the weather, and just let the sea speak to me.
For all these reasons I find the description in the Book of Revelation about the new heaven and the new earth very strange (Rev. 21:1) because it says "there was no longer any sea."
There is no place for the sea in the Hebrew idea of heaven because the sea represents primordial chaos. (Actually I think it may just be that the Hebrew people have never been great sailors, but what do I know about these things?)
At any rate, while I am still on this earth, I am grateful to all those who do go down to the sea in ships. (Psalm 107:23-24)
I am also very thankful today that the British sailors and marines who were being held hostage in Iran have been released unharmed, though I am deeply saddened by those who have lost their lives or their homes in the most recent tsunami.

Energy matters

I can't remember if I have posted this photograph before but I thought I'd like to return to the theme of 'light on the water.'
It's where I started with this blog, and it's often where I start with photographs.
This particular photograph was taken in 2003 when we visited the USA. We managed to see a number of places in our three week tour, which took in a number of states, including Massachusetts, Maine, Florida, New York and Connecticut. This is Perkins Cove in Maine.
It reminded me of Cabot Cove in the old TV series 'Murder She Wrote.' Thankfully no one was murdered while we were there as far as I know, and Jessica Fletcher never turned up.

I think one of the reasons why I like the combination of light and water is that you get unexpected and interesting distortions of the sky, or whatever is on or beside the water. But, even more importantly, both light and water are such elemental things- the very stuff of life itself. Energy and Matter.
The fact that these two things are interchangeable (and that a very small amount of matter equates to a huge amount of energy) is something that always causes me to marvel. I pity those who see life only in terms of the material: they miss so much.