Sand dunes are more than an elegant, graceful display of nature. If we take a deeper look at their undulating crests, we can learn an important truth about the world around us.
The simple but enlightening truth is this: Sand dunes are never the same from one instant to the next.
Every grain of sand is constantly shifting, blown by winds to create new configurations – even if the subtle differences are imperceptible to our eyes. The dunes that existed one minute ago will never exist again.
It’s that way with sand dunes. It’s that way with our bodies. According to physicists and Eastern spiritual traditions, it’s that way with everything in the universe: a continual swirl of energy and matter that is dancing, dissolving and reassembling every instant.
I was grateful to photograph these dunes in California shortly after sunrise, knowing this view would never be exactly the same ever again.
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beautiful
beautiful shadows. The dunes look like they are actually moving- like waves in the ocean.
Yes my body is like the sand dune. It shifts and changes every day with pain or freedom. I know we will never be the same again
I could look at - and get lost in - "abstract dunes" all day ... there is something magical about them - and I think you've captured a key part of the "magic" - their ephemerality; a form of "frozen energy" or - better - as Heinz Pagels (a physicist) once put it, "Science shows us that the visible world is neither matter nor spirit; the visible world is the invisible organization of energy." Your wonderful dunes are like pixie dust sprinkled on an otherwise invisible froth of movement. Great shot.
The impermanence of sand dunes…our bodies…our environment…our lives…
Paul, this photo gives much to ponder ☀️