99: Spark of Splendor - hey, I tried

 Chapter 10, Text 41: Know that all opulent, beautiful and glorious creations spring from but a spark of My splendor.

This afternoon I walked out my front door with my fabulous Sony A6000 camera in hand. Meditating on this verse of the Gita, I was determined to discover sparks of God's splendor outside my front door. 

I snapped pictures of angular palms, yellow leaves gleaming in the sun, red leaves peeking out of the forest floor, the bright green of a tiny tuft of a leaf amidst a sea of gnarled branches. 

Okay, okay, lots of leaves. 

I tried to ambush an ant for a picture, but they just scuttled away, and I couldn't focus my gigantic camera lens in time to capture them. So there went that. 

I tried to capture the beams of sunlight that filtered through the forest and landed upon my face. The experience of absorbing that  liquid gold was lost when I took a picture, even with my fancy camera. Might as well have had my phone camera. 

To be honest, I live down a quiet dirt road. It's lovely and soothing and peace-giving to my heart when I want to clear my head and bask in the silence of the woods. But I'll tell you what, it's not much of a "spark of splendor." 

Halfway back, I navigated on my camera to view a picture I had taken, to double-check the angle. 

NO MEMORY CARD. CANNOT READ. 

Huh? 

I opened up the battery case and saw that indeed I had a memory card inserted. I tried again. Nope. No use. Later on at home I inspected the card to find that it was chipped and broken. 

I sighed. All those pictures I thought I had taken of sparks of splendor were... well, gone. 

Like a spark that flares brightly for a dazzling moment, then gone. Forever. Just a spark. 

Two things I take away from this experience. 

1) If I train my eye to see God's glory in even the tiniest leaf, or a beam of sunlight, or the veins of my hand, then that is the greatest glory. 

2) Before I set out on a photo shoot, check to make sure my memory card is working.