This morning PhotoBotos posted a magnificent photo by Alex Teuscher (Geneva, Switzerland) of a woman sitting at the mouth of what appears to be a cave. Click on the link http://www.photobotos.com/dare-dream-geneva-switzerland-alex-teuscher/ to see the photograph and read the commentaries by PhotoBotos and Alex, the featured photographer.

Every work of art invites interpretation by the viewer. “Dare to Dream” was intended to create a picture of dreaming and imagination. When I saw it, I couldn’t help but think of other images that inform the picture.

Stunning! I hear echoes from “the cave”: Elijah hiding in the cave; Plato’s cave where all we humans get to see are the shadows on the walls but never the fire behind the catwalk whose light produces the shadows; the dark nights of the soul – depression, sorrow, loneliness, hopelessness, grief – all sitting there inside the cave when there is such splendor all around it.

This picture is different. It sings a different song. The beauty of this piece is that the woman (it strikes me as a young woman, although I suppose it could be John Lennon ) is serene, at one with the beauty and brilliance of the natural world. Freed from the chains that would keep her deep within the cave.  And…she’s not talking on a cell phone or texting! She’s fully present to the beauty. Even the walls of the cave are bathed in the light. This deserves a wider audience. Wonderful.

Drop a comment here to share with others what you see and how it strikes you. And be sure and follow PhotoBotos.com and Via Lucis, two of my favorite sites for meditation.