I’ve been looking into the water, looking at the light inside it, watching it work. Someday I’ll be able to make a poem of whatever it is that holds me so. Meanwhile, here’s what the little camera saw the other day. It makes my heart glad just to have captured this much.
Watch it long enough and you persuade yourself that you can understand how the mountains were made, and the great deserts, and the deep rivers. Watch it long enough and you begin to understand why the water had to come first. Then the light.
Posted in: Adventures outdoors
Torch Lake Views 
P.j. grath
October 7, 2010
Beautiful and soothing, Gerry. I’ve been a little hyper indoors this morning, but your slide show has calmed me down.
Gerry
October 7, 2010
I am very glad to have been a calming influence for a change. You have no idea how many people I can aggravate in a day.
Wendi
October 7, 2010
Nice pictures…I love water. However they make me want to hear it too. Any chance we can get audio with that?
Gerry
October 7, 2010
There is, but I have to become more proficient, and I have to invest in some Upgrades. Just think–I could have a post about Stone Circle with the fire crackling and Terry reciting and Louan singing and Jim blazing away. Satisfactory.
Carsten
October 7, 2010
You made it! Very good images of the light in the water. Well done Gerry.
I’m sorry to disagree with you on the last thesis: The light was here first. You see, lightwaves travel 300 000 km/sec – convert to feet or miles if you like – while wave velocities on the water are measured in meters /sec. Then you can conclude that light was here before anything else.
🙂
Perhaps it is opposite in thunderstorms when the rain precedes the lightning.
Gerry
October 7, 2010
I am flattered that you take it for granted that I can understand such technical matters. And, as it happens, when challenged, I do seem to rise to the occasion. I will have to agree with your analysis of what the little camera saw and when it saw it.
On the other hand, I was, um, making an allusion to the first chapter of Genesis, which I suspect is a different kettle of fish altogether. (I am not quite old enough to have been in on this particular chapter and cannot testify as to its veracity based upon any personal observations.)
Now you have me thinking about thunderstorms, and whether we typically hear the BOOM or the pitter-patter first. Must investigate.
uphilldowndale
October 7, 2010
I could have sworn that I DID hear it.
Gerry
October 7, 2010
That is because you are a deeply sensitive and intuitive person. That or you’re imagining things. Welcome to my world.
Wendi
October 7, 2010
I like the idea of audio of Stone Circle, but I really have a yearning in the middle of the winter for the sound of waves splashing on shore. I really should just go to the lake with an audio recorder and record that. I will keep your photos on file because they do help me hear the water if I concentrate. Water is such an amazing thing!
Gerry
October 7, 2010
I have a little idea. I’ll see if I can get it to work. By the time you get back I’ll have figured this out.
You are going to send postcards, right? Think how they’d elevate the discussion around here!
Karma
October 7, 2010
Watch it long enough and I can almost believe my next visit to beautiful water isn’t an impossibly long time away.
Gerry
October 7, 2010
There is quite possibly a beautiful bit of water much closer to you than you think. It’s just waiting for you to find it.
Scott Thomas Photography
October 8, 2010
I can hear the waves, Gerry. A most pleasing sound indeed.
Gerry
October 8, 2010
It’s interesting that lots of people who live near water looked at these images and went right to the sound–and that all of us know exactly what the others mean by that sound. Now I’m thinking about two things. Is it possible to show a person who, say, lives in the desert, an image that conveys that sound? Or is it possible to describe that sound in words in a way that helps the desert-dweller grasp it? And how would we know if we’d succeeded anyway? I guess it’s like trying to pin down whether what you see as “blue” is what I see as “blue” or something utterly different.
Anna
October 8, 2010
Indeed, about the water… the power and might in destruction and creation… and so soothing to watch and listen to like a lullaby. Very lovely photos, Gerry, and I love the gorgeous autumn photo header.
Gerry
October 8, 2010
Thanks, Anna. It’s a pretty time of year. Miss Sadie and the Cowboy keep reminding me to go sit in a patch of sun and sniff the pine needles. They’re right of course.
Cindy Lou
October 10, 2010
For some reason, your slide show won’t load today….I shall try again later as water is one of my touchstone elements. We live about 1/8 of a mile from the shores of Lk. Superior and though I can’t see it from here, on a stormy day – I open the windows so I can hear her fury…..on a really stormy day, I don’t even have to open the windows to hear! My kind of storm 🙂
Gerry
October 10, 2010
Thank you for letting me know about the problem–and for liking the post enough to come back to it! The slideshow is running for me right now, but who knows what that means. Please let me know if you still can’t load it.
I have camped on the shores of Lake Superior, and love its voice. I’ve always wanted to be there during a storm–but not too near! What a power that lake is.