The only constant is change | Practicing Mindful Living

I spent a cold morning at the beach recently photographing the waves. Playing with depth of field and focus as the water washed in and out.

Walking up the deserted beach trying to see something different in the uniformity to capture it in an image. 

And it struck me. Water is perhaps the most photographed thing that is never the same. Perhaps it is the epitome of trying to capture something that can only be experienced in the moment.

“Oh, that’s not special!” I would think, peeking at the back of the camera, at the image after image of the same scene. Yet, each was different, because the water was different. The swirls and eddies were in another place than the time before and the time after. And maybe that constant difference was the unique qualifier - the special thing.

And then I thought on the knowledge that the water itself carves tracks into the rocks and the sand. Mostly minute, but powerful in its repetition. It is never the same after each wave recedes, even if we can’t perceive the change yet. 

And what is that but the biggest life metaphor - that the only constant is change - and trying to control it in life it is like trying photography waves on a cloudy winter day. 

And maybe the more relevant thing to do, rather than worry about the next masterpiece, was to be grateful for the hours of practice on the changing neutral medium. 

A way to practice mindful living, a memory made from the ordinary. An afternoon well spent.