Casting Shadows

Shadows on the beach at Cleggan, County Mayo, Ireland ©A.Rutherford

Wanted to share with you something from my reading today . . .

This fellow painter was writing about her response to an experience of viewing Turner's watercolors in the Tate Museum in Britain:

“I went and sat in front of Turner for hours and I realized something profound—that the vanishing point in the work does not vanish so that you have the feeling that love, truth, and beauty go on forever.”    -Catherine Clancy

I found these two Turners online which illustrate her observation beautifully.

And I remembered this adage . . .

Doubt is the shadow cast when something gets in the way of light.

Helpful, isn't it, to understand that doubt, in what seems to be its opposition to Light or Truth, ironically points to Truth's presence, and in a way brings a greater sense of light because of the shadow that is cast.

Like the shadows on the wall of Plato's cave, I guess.

And shadow is one of those neat words which can have multiple meanings.  For example, there are two Gaelic words for shadow—  scáth and scáil.   Scáth also means shelter.

So the old Irish proverb "Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoinne" means "People live in one another's shadow."   Lovely thought, isn't it?  We can live in the shelter of one another’s presence.

Spring is coming with its lovely light . . . I wish you a Springtime full of reassuring shadows! 
_________________________________________________________________