Change

It is hard to believe that it has been more than 2500 years since the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, declared that "The only constant in life is change". Somehow the message seems just as valid today as it no doubt was during those ancient days.

A couple months ago I listened to a discussion on NPR in which the scientist being interviewed had conducted a study regarding the concept of personal change in individual lives. The simplified summary is that he asked a group of people at various stages in their lives two questions: 1) How much has your life changed in the last five years? and 2) How much do you expect your life to change in the next five years? Invariably the answers to the questions were 1) a lot and 2) not much. Somewhat unsurprisingly, the belief that everything would remain static into the future was more pronounced the older the subject being asked the question. Then he went back five years later and asked the same question of the same people, and again another five years after that and each time, the answers were exactly the same! That is "My life has changed a lot in the last five years but it is not going to change in the future." But of course, it did!

If someone had suggested to me twenty years ago that I would be spending the bulk of my days searching for, taking and editing photographs at this point in my life, I would have had a hard time believing it. If someone had told me three years ago that almost all the photos I would be taking would be of bugs, I would have said they were crazy! Yet that is where I find myself at this stage of my life - and loving it, I should add.

Close-up image of a dragonfly

Cabbage white butterfly

Bee fly

The great unknown for me as I go forward is whether or not I can find a way to use my images of tiny things to communicate an environmental message. Not only is there the bigger story of the importance of biodiversity in our world, there are the individual dramas of each unique creature with its unique purpose for existence. 

I look forward to telling their stories in much more detail!