A marvelous moonlit moment when David Esterly was skiing to keep the moon in a fix spot, creating a parallax effect. He felt he was arresting time for a moment and luxuriated in its apparent suspension or even reverse.

‘Hah! I could make time run backward. If I kept up my pace, I could force the moon down into the trees again. Soon the calligraphic moment came again, and I skied at the correct speed to freeze it in place, so I could scrutinize it more closely than before. The spectacle held steady until I ran out of room under the hill. I had to stop, and the moon climbed free again. A parallax effect, halting time’s inexorable march. The past was freed from the future, and for a while you could dawdle in it. 

May you dawdle now and then in that effortless place where the past is freed from the future and you are simply in the present.

See also our quote-rich celebration of David Esterly’s magnificent book, The Lost Carving.

Source: David Esterly, The Lost Carving: A Journey to the heart of making (New York: Penguin, 2013), p. 94

Photo credit: hschmider at pixabay