A former guest on New Dimensions, Leslie Curchack is a nature photographer and creator of the 2025 wall calendar, “In Love with the Earth.”
Here I’m sharing, with her permission, her most inspiring narrative about exploring a sea cave. – Justine
Dear Friends-
In May, I found this sea cave along a strip of coastline only accessible at extreme low tide. Traversing this distance was perilous, as we had to make the journey over treacherous slippery rocks and boulders of all sizes within a limited time to avoid being trapped by the incoming waves. The top photo shows the scale of size as we approached the cave in the moment. The second photo shows the cave as it appears on the August page of the 2025 calendar: its immensity narrowing to a small opening, leading to a chamber with light streaming from a hole in the ground above. Being in front of this amazing phenomenon stirred me in a way John O’Donohue hints at with:
“Fashioned from clay, we carry the memory of the Earth – ancient forgotten things stir within our hearts and memories from the time before the mind was born.”
I put that quote under the photo and added these words of my own: “As a living organism of Earth we get to choose what to notice and how to respond. Notice the older, deeper intelligence that fastens us together and carries us forward. Hold to it with humility and gratitude.”
I can’t help thinking that the older, deeper intelligence fastening us together is somehow at the root of our capacity to love. And with that in mind, I offer you these beautiful words from Maria Popova:
“Suppose we agree that we are here to love even though the work is almost unbearably difficult, even though we know that everything alive is dying, that everything beautiful is perishable, that everything we love will eventually be taken from us by one form of entropy or another, culminating with life itself.
There is no pact to be made with the universe — we die, whether or not we agree to it, whether or not we have learned how to love in the bright interlude between atom and dust. We may or may not be lucky enough to live out the two billion heartbeats our creaturely inheritance has allotted us. But no matter how many we actually get, it matters how we spend them and what we spend them on. It may be the only thing that matters.”
May we all find a way to spend our heartbeats on love: for each other, for Earth and for all life. May the ancient forgotten depths in us awaken to inform and expand our sense of connection and belonging with all creation. May we wield our gifts against the dark and hope we make a sliver of difference
Yours in shared mortality and learning to love,
P.S. 2025 calendars are available. Go to www.lesliecurchack.com.
