Reflections

Once I was standing on a bank of a pond, watching a duck resting just opposite and admiring its reflection in the water. It was such a tranquil scene… I zoomed in my camera in an effort to capture the impression but when I opened the photo on my laptop, I felt taken aback. Is this what I saw at the place? There is something wrong with the picture…

And then it dawned on me. The reflection did not look as I supposed it should. The duck was there but there were also trees mirroring themselves in the water which could not be seen in the upper part of the photo. Thus the resulting image consisted of two not quite matching parts. That made me think about reflections.

Mental reflections, that is to say. Our mind is able to reflect everything, not only what we can see at the moment but also what we were able to see before, even without realizing it. In the reflection we can find what is hidden to our awareness. We can distinguish new structures, conjure new patterns, identify unusual hues. We can rediscover what was forgotten, realize what was not thought over, glimpse an unexpected solution. Sometimes the picture may seem unbalanced at first or make us confused but eventually – when we look long enough – it reveals its message.

Isn’t reflection a gate inviting us to an exciting world of new views, understanding and enrichment?