For many of us now at the beginning of the Third Millennium, the Sacred is everywhere, yet not necessarily in the traditional places or Spaces we might expect. Some of us experience the power of the Sacred in the sanctuary of a church, while others experience Sacred moments in coffee shops or around kitchen tables, sharing joys, fears, hopes, and sorrows with family and friends. Many in the world find comfort and community in churches, synagogues, temples and mosques -- but there are also many of us for whom organized religion is not the answer, yet we still strive to live our lives as spiritual and human beings and to make the world a better place. I believe there is a Soul within each of us, a carrier of a loving yet human Godliness, that wishes to connect with the Souls in others, the Sacredness in Spaces, and the Spirits in the world.
I find that the Sacred is all around me. I find peace within the Sacred Space of a church, without believing in the risen Christ. I find beauty in the petroglyphs of the ancient Anasazi. I feel a connection to my ancestors when I hear the Highland pipes. I find answers in the Sacred texts of many holy men from Lao-Tzu and His Holiness The Fourteenth Dalai Lama to T.S. Eliot and Black Elk. I hear hope in the songs of Bruce Cockburn and Peter Gabriel. I see a Sacred playfulness in the sculptures of Alexander Calder. I find grace in the paintings of Modigliani. I see Sacred mystery in the photography of William Lesch.
I feel a sense of the magical when I create a flame spiral, in the Full Moon light. I feel a healing in the making of a pine needle spiral in a forest planted by my now deceased father. I feel wonder in the placing of a circle of Christmas lights in the remote high desert near home. I feel a childlike awe at the sight of the Very Large Array in New Mexico. I find comfort in driving on a tree canopied rural road in Virginia. I feel humbled walking on the edge of the sandstone cliffs of Coalmine Canyon in Arizona. I feel pleasantly small, photographing the night sky in the Sonoran Desert. I feel acceptance in the morning eyes of a lover. I feel love from the kind words of a friend.
But more than anything else, in these Sacred Spaces, inside and outside of me, I find something that is larger than me, greater than my Self. A Universal Spirit. A World Soul. A Very Large God. A Something-That-Has-No-Name. My hope is that in viewing my images, you may deepen your own Soul's well, expand the edges of your own Spirit, and find your own universal yet personal experience with the Sacred.
The Cairn Studio
Tucson, Arizona
May 2003