My calm space

When I was sorting some folders recently, I came across a scrap of paper with a sentence written on it: 

'Touching the simple truth from my calm space' 

Those words were the result of an exercise some of us did, in a group at work, many years ago. I can't recall all the details now but we had to think of a time we'd been truly happy, calm and at peace, and then go through a process that involved sifting the words we'd written and refining them down to their essence. It was all a rather magical experience and from it we each distilled a very individual 'life principle'. That phrase was the one I ended with. I rather liked it at the time and, over the years, I have sometimes gone back to it. It still seems to hold good for me. 

Even in my photographic 'journey' I feel this is what I'm often reaching for: something simple, truthful, essential, calm, beautiful. Occasionally, I even come close to achieving it, at least in my own eyes: at best, the process of exploring with my camera and then the resulting image can feel like a 'flow state'. 

Bolton Abbey is one of my happy places and (usually) a truly calm space, in whatever season. The River Wharfe thunders through the rocks in the deep, narrow gorge called the Strid (behind me in this photo). Then, once the river bed widens again, it resumes its gentle flow, a line of bubbles the only sign of the turmoil it has just been through. Sometimes life feels like that, doesn't it?