The calm in the chaos?
~I wake up this morning, earlier than I do on a weekend day. I take a walk in the halls of my home that is a mess after last night- toys strewn all over. I choose to ignore it because this is my moment of solitude as the household enjoys a deep slumber. After having freshened up, I start brewing my tea. As the water boils, I arrange my small table with a book I am currently reading, a pencil, and my reading glasses. I return to my tea and strain it in a mug I haven’t used in a while. It is terracotta and gives out a pleasant fragrance as the hot tea settles in its curves. Taking sips of hot tea, I flip the pages of this book that speaks of solitude in a very therapeutic way. I highlight some beautiful sentences and write in the margins. Occasionally I gaze out the long windows I am sitting beside and think of this morning as the onset of a full moon- rare in its coming.~
When I took this picture and saw it later, I realized that I had managed to capture the calm surrounding me that fine morning. I was amazed at this feat and happy to have something- memorabilia of the sorts- to go back to and experience it all again.
A piece of art, just like a well-strung sentence, can manage to work up our feelings. We feel morose when we see a painting, at times glee. Some make us see loneliness, like Nighthawks by Edward Hopper, and if it has Olivia Liang’s words to describe it, it makes us understand it better. But some are magical like Van Gogh’s The Starry Night or his infamous sunflowers that Sarah Winman describes beautifully in her book Tinman.
It is through words that we sometimes reach these pieces of art better. They etch their existence in the canvas of our mind. To revisit them we either choose the medium of words or sight. As the slumber of the household had begun to lift- like a fog- making way for the chaos, I sat watching this picture one last time- it made me still, and I wondered if I had created something through my lens- a minuscule moment of tranquility? I don’t know. I am yet to figure out if I have the words for it.
This is a picture I will keep returning to because it is a reminder of a state of distress as I searched for the calm- mostly within me.
