"One tries to recover, to be once more in good shape, to become whole again....And I think that is the beginning of awakening. People speak about sudden enlightenment. It is not something very difficult to understand; each of us has undergone that kind of experience in our own life. The distance separating forgetfulness, ignorance, and enlightenment -- that distance is short; it is so short it is no distance at all. One may be ignorant now, but he can be enlightened in the next second. The recovering of oneself can be realized in just one portion of one second. And to be aware of who we are, what we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking, seems to be a very easy thing to do -- and yet it is the most important thing; to remember -- the starting point of the salvation of oneself." -Thich Nhat Hanh The Raft Is Not the Shore
I'm fairly certain enlightenment is something that happens over and over again rather than one singular event. The line about being aware of who we are is as close a quote I could find that sums up how I define the concept of POWER. I wanted to express something about power today because it was a day in which I really liberated myself from all that anger I was feeling last week. Healing myself in such a way infused me with a strong sense of power.
I took the above photo last summer at a moment when being able to freely express anger and rage gave way to clarity and a very strong, hopeful, and joyful feeling of self that can only be described as power. I like to look at the light and colour in this photo as a reminder of who I can be when I don't let that shit bury me.