Faith: full engagement in this strange and shimmering world

CC Jean Stimmell

Walking along the southern end of Hampton Beach on Christmas day, I spied a young girl standing on a windswept sand dune, silhouetted against the dramatic sky. Just as I took this photograph, hair flying, she jumped off the back side of the dune.

The ethereal sky, pounding surf, howling wind and spite-like apparition of the girl combined to produce an other-worldly, spiritual moment, perfectly captured by the following quote from The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman:

"Faith is the willingness to give ourselves over, at times, to things we do not fully understand... Faith is the ability to honor stillness at some moments and at others to ride the passion and exuberance that is the artistic impulse, the flight of the imagination, the full engagement with this strange and shimmering world."