Since I have been getting into photography again over the last few weeks, I notice that what I am doing is not about photography. It is about the spark I find through photography. And that is how it is with much of what I do or have a dream about doing. It is not about whatever it looks like to the world, but about the spark I find in it.
If I don’t notice this, I think that the spark is somehow inherent in the activity or relationship. It is in photography itself, in that job, in living in that place, in the relationship with that person.
But if I notice it, I see that it is about the spark. Whatever I am doing in the outer world allows me to notice and find the spark in my inner world. There is a more conscious appreciation of the spark, and also of the outer situation allowing the spark to be noticed. I can more easily bring the spark into other areas of life, since I know it comes from my inner world. I can more consciously appreciate and nurture it, as a flame in my life.
I am doing something in the outer world which brings up the spark, and this spark becomes a catalyst for changes in my inner and outer life. It sparks a process of transformation. (It can be so simple as to spark energy and interest in looking at how I can change my life in other areas.)
Not noticing the mirroring of the outer and inner situation, with an activity in the outer world sparking something in my inner world, is still OK. The process may still unfold, but if the outer circumstances change I may also stop the process since I think it is dependent on a particular circumstance. Noticing the mirroring changes the situation and allows me to nurture the spark and the process of transformation even as outer circumstances change.
This is also a reminder of the inner and outer world as not two. The perception of an inner and outer world only comes about through a sense of a separate self which filters the world into an outer and inner world. Photography, spark, noticing of the spark and the process it sparks, it is all one field.