I love spirals. I find them quite captivating. My attention is caught by them and I’m drawn close to contemplate them. I’m not sure what it is that makes them just so beautiful, but, to me, they are amongst the most beautiful shapes in the universe. You can see them around you in many places of course….in plants, especially climbers which use this method of finding places to hook onto, then pulling tight to hoist themselves upwards. But also in ferns, and in plants which throw out creepers and tendrils which stress across the ground. We humans often create spirals in our art. Maybe it’s because I’m Scot, because like most Scots I’ve been steeped in the traditional Celtic and Pictish complex knots, three armed spiral shapes which we call the triskele, and intertwined ribbons which swirl around each other. However, I suspect it’s not just those of us with Celtic backgrounds who like spirals.
One of the things I like best about the spiral is that it seems to me that a person’s life story often has that sort of trajectory. There are issues, problems, difficulties which we meet, attempt to address, or run away from, which just keep spiralling back again and again. In fact, human development too seems to have a spiral path.
I don’t think time flows in a straight line. It loops, and it spins, slows down, pauses, runs forward. The past and the future both have their part to play in my ability to make sense of the present. They don’t exist in three separate, sequential boxes, but rather, they loop, cycle and spiral together to create the intricate patterns of the tapestry of a life.
There’s a special thing about this photo. You have to look a bit more closely to see it. Right in the middle of the main spiral in this photo you can see the world clearly – it’s as if you are looking through a lens.
Isn’t that magical?
It reminds me that if I really do want to see the world clearly, then the lens of the spiral can be a pretty good way to do that. What do you see more clearly about your life, when you consider it through the lens of a spiral?
Heroes Not Zombies 
I think I see my path, my growing and even my present in a spiral. Life moves along and we seem to spiral forward and back on the path as we experience life in an infinite loop which is intersected by other loops and then our path may change again as we move through an intersection onto another loop. It makes for an interesting life. And it is why just when I think I have an issue licked, I spiral back and it comes up again now in a different way with a different me to learn more from it. And maybe I am showing my Celtic Irish roots here too!
Ha! Maybe you are! Although I should probably be clear that spirals are found in many cultures. It’s just that, for me, they are most familiar because of the Celtic and Pictish art I grew up with.
I agree with you…spiralling seems to be the underlying form of the human life path
Reblogged this on Love and Love Alone.