Heroes Not Zombies

I know our brains are particularly good at spotting and recognising faces but when we see faces where “there aren’t any” that always fascinates me.

I took this photo because I liked the swirly shapes in the rock which make the rock look dynamic. In contrast, this rock pool is so still you can’t see any sign of movement in the water. That contrast flipping what we’d normally expect to see caught my attention.

I still like this photo for that reason. It also speaks to me of co-creation – how the rock is shaped by the water and vice versa. And it’s also a good representation of how everything changes – even unseemingly changing rock.

But after taking this photo and looking at it later I was struck by something else – if you look at the vertical line down the middle it seems to me that I can see two faces, one pressed up against the other! Both of them smiling!

Now maybe you find that creepy or troll like, but I don’t. It’s delightful!

I know there aren’t “people” in the rock face but I wonder if this sort of experience led people to think of gods or spirits in Nature. Did this contribute to a more enchanted experience of the world? I think it probably did because I still feel it enchanting.

And even if I don’t believe there are gods or spirits in the rock, this perception inspires me and triggers my sense of wonder leading me to reassert my conviction that everything in this world has value….a value which can’t be reduced to a mere “resource”, and it reminds me that every day we can find wonder and delight and we can be enchanted.

Don’t you think that life could benefit from a little more enchantment?