Le blog de la Bergerie

Winter Season in the French Alps

 Specifically in the Valley of "le Haut-Giffre" in Haute-Savoie

Slide show: 7 pictures of the French Alps (be patient, count to 7 and it will start!)

Snow landscapes are amazing! They seem so different, they become very "dream-like"... Everything is transformed by a blanket of fresh powder snow, even in grey overcast weather. When the sun is shining, then it becomes a symphony of glitter and sparkles. Even with frost, this transforming process can turn little leaves in fascinating subjects.

Frost is usually formed at night when the moisture, which had been hanging in the air, begins to condense; and when the temperature goes below the freezing point, this condensation of water vapor will result in tiny ice crystals covering everything in a delicate lacy blanket. It is a beautiful sight and it will evaporate as the day progresses. But for a few hours, even the most simple reality will be enhanced.

       

       

         

There is beauty in nature, and that beauty is often obvious to everyone of us, such as the landscape covered with a blanket of snow, or the gorgeous and golden rays of the sunset, the mysterious and surging waves of the ocean or the breath-taking view from the top of the mountain. For one moment, we look, and we admire, we take it all in and we stand still, awestruck. But the artist among us will be able to catch even more subtle changes in nature and bring us their simple and sober beauty, elegant and fragile, such as a drop of rain on a petal or the luminous outline of an autumn leaf against the setting sun. Once in a while, an especially great artist will offer us the opportunity to look at things in a completely new way and even affect a change in ourselves in the process and we walk away from the experience transformed and enriched.
That's what the saints are here for!
They can see better than most of us the grace of God in his creation and in his creatures and because of their radical love for God, they help us see the invisible filaments of grace filling the world. For one moment, through the saints, we see love in action, we feel the joy and peace that comes with it, and we are swept along in that mysterious and beautiful wave of surrender, awestruck. Well, at least that is how I see it. So I walk around with my phone and I take pictures. It is not that I am a great artist because I am pretty much your average middle-of-the-pack photographer but once in a while I get a good shot. And when I do, I smile, and I am grateful. For that matter, I am often thankful for even the poor and fuzzy and fumbled shots, because I can, occasionally, still see the filaments swirling through them too, and I always hope to do better next time.

In a nutshell, these are my photographic contemplation insights... 

References:
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". Genesis 1:1
We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face", will we fully know the ways by which - even through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest for which he created heaven and earth". CCC §314.

Copyright©2005-2023Michele Szekely