Moments in sand

Yesterday my Miksang Contemplative photography teacher organized an impromptu practice day about Sand in Zandvoort aan Zee (small beach town). You either studied the thatness of sand or you played around with moments in sand depending on the level you had reached.

We started out the first 20 minutes by looking around in an area of a few square meters designated to you by the teacher. This exercise is to teach us to overcome our boredom with the intention, but there was so much to see in my little area that I didn't become bored at all. And the twenty minutes were over before I knew it!

After that we had about half a hour to walk to the restaurant for lunch, that seemed like a really long stretch to cover in that little space of time because with every step I took there was so much to see, so much it was rather overwhelming.

I started taking more steps without looking close to the ground and more into the larger area around me, more to the beach as a whole so to speak. Then I noticed the lines of car tracks and people's footsteps in the sand.

It was a cloudy day, one minute the sun was shining and then the sun was gone and the colours and light changed with that. Not a single moment was the same as the other.

I experienced being in the moment, enjoyed playing around in the sand and being happy for just those reasons.

To explain the difference between the thatness and moments: thatness is all about the qualities of sand, the colours, shapes, patterns, grains, texture etc. It is not about a fleeting moment, you can find it again any other day. It has a solid aspect.

Moments are more like what the word says: something happened and after a second, 10 minutes or the day you will not be able to find it anymore. It has a temporary aspect.

Most of my pictures were about a moment in sand. These two pictures were more about the thatness of sand in stead of a moment:

quality of sand on concrete

quality of sand on wooden floor

 I hope you had a good Saturday, too!