Faith Healer by Bodhi Smith

Oct 29, 2021

"faith healer" is my brand new impression and blog...
 
"we want to escape our pain and feel better now, we look for anything that offers fast help. but all too often, we turn towards creature comforts that tend to do more harm than good. more specifically, our religion and our vices and how they all too often work together on us" ― bodhinku, faith healer    
 
"in wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria" ― benjamin franklin
 
"maybe we just live between hurting and healing" ― benjamin alire saenz
 
"we are not a hugging people. in terms of emotional comfort, it's our belief that no amount of physical contact can match the healing powers of a well made cocktail" ― david sedaris, naked
 
"having faith doesn't make god any more real than disbelief makes him disappear. your opinion doesn't change reality. your opinion will never heal you" ― bodhinku, faith healer
 
"i like on the table,
when we're speaking,
the light of a bottle
of intelligent wine" ― pablo neruda
 
"his lips drink water
but his heart drinks wine" ― e. e. cummings, 100 selected poems
 
"accept what life offers you and try to drink from every cup. all wines should be tasted; some should only be sipped, but with others, drink the whole bottle" ― paulo coelho, brida
 
"dogs are pure faith healers, they are masters of creating emotionally safe space just by being themselves. it's as if something deep within our souls resonates with their energy, their unwavering unconditional love and unbridled joy to be in our presence, their undivided loyalty, and complete trust in us. dogs make us feel special, and teach us by example to relish simple pleasures and live totally in the moment. they teach us there is only now and only who you are, who you are with, and what you are doing right then...and, what could be better than to sniff the wind and be in the company of those you love?" ― val silver, rescue me
 
"i think religion is about vices, both the obvious and the more insidious ways that they show up in the human experience...often as a really candid confrontation of the cognitive dissonance a person who struggles with substance abuse can feel—the overwhelming evidence that this substance is harming you, and the counterintuitive but very real craving for the relief it provides" ― julien baker, faith healer 
 
this first tune is absolutely the perfect music to accompany my blog today, not only does it carry the same title as my photograph here, but it also delves into the same profound and thought provoking message of the deep connection between our vices and religion in our lives... "faith healer" by julien baker ... (just click on any of the words in the powder blue links to listen to the tune and watch the video) ...
 
"oh, i miss it high. how it dulled the terror and the beauty, and now i see everything in startling intensity. oh, what i wouldn't give if it would take away the sting a minute. everything i love, i trade it in to feel it rush into my chest...the smoke alarm's been going off for weeks. no one showed up, and half the time it isn't what you think of. faith healer come put your hands on me. a snake oil dealer, i'll believe you if you make me feel something. oh, faith healer come put your hands all over me. a snake oil dealer. i'll believe you if you make me feel something" ― julien baker, faith healer    
 
"either give me wine or leave me alone" ― jalaluddin rumi, the soul of rumi
 
"some of us need desperately to feel less heartache, or less loneliness, or less grief, or just feel numb of the pain, to just find faith in something...right or wrong, we turn to religion, or alcohol, or drugs, or sometimes all of these to help us find the light out of the darkness" ― bodhinku, faith healer
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MEANING
"they say time is the greatest healer. but sometimes, time takes too much time to heal us" ― bodhinku, faith healer
 
"healer" is defined by merriam-webster as "something that alleviates distress or anguish"
 
by this definition, wine can truly be a healer. as such, religion can also be a healer. and both taken together could be faith healers...
 
in this photo, embedded between the lines of the grapevines looking up to the chapel, there's a profound and thought provoking message of the deep connection between our vices and the religion in our lives...jimmy buffett once wrote into the lyrics of one of his popular tunes:
 
"religion, oh there's a thin line between saturday night and sunday morning" ― jimmy buffett, fruitcakes  
 
they say time is the greatest healer, but sometimes time takes too much time to help heal us...we want to escape our pain and feel better now, we look for anything that offers fast help. but all too often, we turn towards creature comforts that tend to do more harm than good. more specifically, our religion and our vices and how they all too often work together on us...
 
still imho, a little bit of wine to excess one night (or any vice) isn't a bad thing. sometimes we need the help of spirited libations to cut loose and have a bit of spirited fun, something to make us less spiritual and uptight, to take us out of our sane mind, to assist in releasing us from ourselves for a spell...and then left to deal with the hangover the next day, all cleaned out, ready to go on with life...
 
"and now i must confess: i could use some rest. i can't run at this pace very long. yes it's quite insane, i think i hurt my brain. but it cleans me out, then i can go on..." ― jimmy buffett, trying to reason with hurricane season
 
to me, this impression is a symbolic examination of escapism. some of us need desperately to feel less heartache, or less loneliness, or less grief, or just feel numb of the pain, to just find faith in something...right or wrong, we turn to religion, or alcohol, or drugs, or sometimes all of these to help us find the light out of the darkness...
 
and seen here is the one obvious association between religion and alcohol, wine and the church, along with their combined beauty, promises, and addiction. every person in their hidden heart wants a quick fix. we're all looking for the sordid, final balm to cure what ails us...we just want to feel better in this moment, better than what time offers us...
 
my impression isn't offering a deep dissertation on wine and religion being bad or good, i'm mostly indifferent to both most times, yet all for them at other times...and i'm not posing for any sort of solution or cure to our human craving of vices, but i am pointing toward the issue, and clearly articulating the problem always leads to the solution...this is an intricately rich image that candidly observes a crisis of faith and a hunger for relief, something deeply embedded in every human spirit...
 
"a little bit of wine to excess one night isn't a bad thing. sometimes we just need the help of some spirited libations to cut loose and have some spirited fun...to assist in releasing us from ourselves for a spell" ― bodhinku, listening to the signs
 
and here is a great tune from 1993 by easily one of my all-time favorite musicians, i have been to 19 concerts by jimmy buffett and consider myself a true parrothead! this song is a bit long, but it's chocked full of some awesome lyrics that duly apply to the deeper meaning of my impression and blog today: "fruitcakes" by jimmy buffett ... (just click on any of the words in the powder blue links to listen to the tune and watch the video) ...
 
"you know, i was talking to my friend desdemona the other day. she runs this space station and bake shop down near boomtown. she told me that human beings are flawed individuals. the cosmic bakers took us out of the oven a little too early. and that's the reason we're as crazy as we are and i believe it. take, for example, when you go to the movies these days, you know they try to sell you this jumbo drink. eight extra ounces of watered-down cherry coke for an extra 25 cents. i don't want it. i don't want that much organization in my life. i don't want other people thinking for me. i want my junior mints, where did the junior mints go in the movies. i don't want a 12-pound nestle's crunch for 25 dollars. i want junior mints. we need more fruitcakes in this world and less bakers. we need people that care. i'm mad as hell and i don't want to take it anymore. fruitcakes in the kitchen (fruitcakes in the kitchen). fruitcakes on the street (fruitcakes on the street). struttin' naked through the crosswalk in the middle of the week. half-baked cookies in the oven (cookies in the oven). half-baked people on the bus (people on the bus). there's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us...paradise, lost and found. paradise, take a look around. i was out in california where i hear they have it all. they got riots, fires, mud slides; they've got sushi in the mall. water bars, brontosaurs, chinese modern lust. shake and bake life with the quake, the secret's in the crust. fruitcakes in the kitchen (fruitcakes in the kitchen). fruitcakes on the street (fruitcakes on the street). struttin' naked through the crosswalk in the middle of the week. half-baked cookies in the oven (cookies in the oven). half-baked people on the bus (people on the bus). there's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us...speaking of fruitcakes, how 'bout the government? your tax dollars at work. we lost our martian rocket ship, the high paid spokesman said. looks like that silly rocket ship has lost its cone-shaped head. we spent 90 jillion dollars trying to get a look at mars. i hear universal laughter ringing out among the stars. fruitcakes in the galaxy (fruitcakes in the galaxy). fruitcakes on the earth (fruitcakes on the earth). struttin' naked towards eternity, we've been that way since birth. half-baked cookies in the oven (cookies in the oven). half-baked people on the bus (people on the bus). there's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us...religion, religion. oh, there's a thin line between saturday night and sunday morning. here we go now, alright, alter boys. mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. where's the church, who took the steeple? religion is in the hands of some crazy-ass people. television preachers with bad hair and dimples. the god's honest truth is it's not that simple. it's the buddhist in you, it's the pagan in me. it's the muslim in him, she's catholic ain't she? it's the born again look. it's the wasp and the jew. tell me what's goin' on, i ain't got a clue...now here comes the big ones, relationships, we all got 'em. we all want 'em, what do we do with 'em? here we go, i'll tell ya. she said you gotta do your fair share, now cough up half the rent. i treat my body like a temple, you treat yours like a tent. but the right word at the right time, may get me a little hug. that's the difference between lightning and a harmless lightnin' bug. fruitcakes in the kitchen (fruitcakes in the kitchen). fruitcakes on the street (fruitcakes on the street). struttin' naked through the crosswalk in the middle of the week. half-baked cookies in the oven (cookies in the oven). half-baked people on the bus (people on the bus). there's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us...the future, captain's log, stardate two thousand and something. we're seven years from the millenium, that's a science fiction fact. stanley kubrick and his buddy hal now don't look that abstract. so I'll put on my bob marley tape and practice what i preach. get jah lost in the reggae mon as i walk along the beach. stay in touch with my insanity really is the only way. it's a jungle out there kiddies. have a very fruitful day, hey! fruitcakes in the kitchen (fruitcakes in the kitchen). fruitcakes on the street (fruitcakes on the street). struttin' naked through the crosswalk in the middle of the week. half-baked cookies in the oven (cookies in the oven). half-baked people on the bus (people on the bus). there's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us...that's right, you too, yeah, those crumbs are spread all around this universe. i've seen fruitcakes. i saw this guy in santa monica roller-skate naked through the crosswalk. down in new orleans in the french quarter there are fruitcakes like you cannot believe. new york, forget it, fruitcake city. down island, we've got fruitcakes...spread them crumbs around that's right. we want 'em around. keep baking baby, keep baking" ― jimmy buffett, fruitcakes
 
"seen here is the one obvious association between religion and alcohol, wine and the church, along with their combined beauty, promises, and addiction. every person in their hidden heart wants a quick fix. we're all looking for the sordid, final balm to cure what ails us" ― bodhinku, faith healer
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MORE QUOTES FOR EXTRA MEANING
"there is truth in wine and children" ― plato
 
"the emotion that can break your heart is sometimes the very one that heals it" ― nicholas sparks, at first sight
 
"i cook with wine, sometimes i even add it to the food" ― w.c. fields   
 
"give me fine wine, fruit, pleasant weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody i do not know" ― john keats
 
"wine comes in at the mouth
and love comes in at the eye;
that's all we shall know for truth
before we grow old and die.
i lift the glass to my mouth,
i look at you, and sigh" ― w.b. yeats
 
"wine is one of the most civilized things in the world and one of the most natural things of the world that has been brought to the greatest perfection, and it offers a greater range for enjoyment and appreciation than, possibly, any other purely sensory thing" ― ernest hemingway, the sun also rises
 
"i can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing. pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. but then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air" ― c. joybell c.
 
"this life is for loving, sharing, learning, smiling, caring, forgiving, laughing, hugging, helping, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more loving. i choose to live life this way. i want to live my life in such a way that when i get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, 'aw shit, he's up!" ― steve maraboli, unapologetically you   
 
"we all need something to help us unwind at the end of the day. you might have a glass of wine, or a joint, or a big delicious blob of heroin to silence your silly brainbox of its witterings but there has to be some form of punctuation, or life just seems utterly relentless" ― russell brand, my booky wook
 
"to the bottle i go
to heal my heart and drown my woe
rain may fall, and wind may blow
and many miles be still to go
but under a tall tree will i lie
and let the clouds go sailing by" ― j.r.r. tolkien
 
“wisdom is your mentor, never forsake it.
understanding is your guide, never ignore it.
ignorance is your enemy, never embrace it.
faith is your helper, never desert it.
hope is your confidant, never reject it.
despair is your opponent, never tolerate it.
peace is your consoler, never avoid it.
contentment is your companion, never betray it.
greed is your adversary, never accept it.
joy is your healer, never shun it.
happiness is your friend, never disown it.
envy is your antagonist, never welcome it.
love is your savior, never abandon it.
kindness is your helpmate, never oppose it.
hatred is your rival, never approve it.
virtue is your preacher, never discard it.
integrity is your accomplice, never deny it.
vice is your nemesis, never accommodate it" ― matshona dhliwayo 
 
"it has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' i do not agree. the wounds remain. in time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone" ― rose fitzgerald kennedy, times to remember
 
"it's the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. without them life is safe, but not worth bothering with" ― stephen fry, moab Is my washpot
 
"they say time heals all wounds, but that presumes the source of the grief is finite" ― cassandra clare, clockwork prince
 
"healing is not a ‘black and white’ process, it’s not even a ‘grey’ process, it more like a; ‘pinky, yellowy, orangy, greeny, bluey and purply’ process with a hint of ‘gold and silver’ and a huge jar of ‘faith" ― wayne lee, the art of the intuitive healer
 
"i know she’s not here. right now all i seem to do is cry. i know all about time and wounds healing, but even if i had all the time in the world, i still don’t know what to do with all this hurt right now" ― nina guilbeau, too many sisters
 
"there is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature" ― rachel carson, silent spring
 
"one should always be drunk. that's all that matters...but with what? with wine, with poetry, or with virtue, as you chose. but get drunk" ― charles baudelaire, paris spleen
 
“the whole universe is in a glass of wine. for it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe. there are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflection in the glass; and our imagination adds atoms. the glass is a distillation of the earth's rocks, and in its composition we see the secrets of the universe's age, and the evolution of stars. what strange array of chemicals are in the wine? how did they come to be? there are the ferments, the enzymes, the substrates, and the products. there in wine is found the great generalization; all life is fermentation. nobody can discover the chemistry of wine without discovering, as did louis pasteur, the cause of much disease. how vivid is the claret, pressing its existence into the consciousness that watches it! If our small minds, for some convenience, divide this glass of wine, this universe, into parts: physics, biology, geology, astronomy, psychology, and so on...remember that nature does not know it! so let's put it all back together, not forgetting ultimately what it is for.lLet it give us one more final pleasure; drink it and forget it all!" ― richard p. feynman
 
"drink wine. this is life eternal. this is all that youth will give you. it is the season for wine, roses and drunken friends. be happy for this moment. this moment is your life" ― omar khayyam
 
"the wound is the place where the light enters you" ― jalaluddin rumi, the essential rumi
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ABOUT THE IMPRESSION
"this is an intricately rich image that candidly observes a crisis of faith and a hunger for relief, something deeply embedded in every human spirit" ― bodhinku, faith healer    
 
this photograph was captured this past summer 2021 during my cross country coast-to-coast roadtrip (on the first leg) with my doggie, besos while we were visiting a private winery in central washington state (with special permission of overnight access to the property from the owners)...image was taken just a few minutes before sunrise at 5:06am on june 6th, 2021...this composition is comprised entirely of one long exposure (f/11 @200mm for 11secs, iso-64)...and this single frame was not merged with any other exposures like i often do with my photography to achieve the perfect lighting of the entire scene...
 
in my photography, i always use filters to create longer exposure effects, saturate colors naturally, and balance the light in my composition in-camera...i often use as many as four filters at time, and i always use at least one filter in my completed impressions...
 
for this exposure, to get the effects and balance i was looking for, i used two progreyusa filters in the capture of this composition, a 3.0 nd progrey antarctica filter to bring the light in the image down 10 stops to create this dreamy effect with a slight motion blur of the grapevines and clouds, plus naturally saturate all the red, green, and blue colors in the image, and a 0.9 gnd progrey aurora filter to help balance in-camera overall the image the way i envisioned it...in this case, to stop down the light in the sky and clouds at the top of the image an extra three stops and help permit details in the shadows amongst the grapevines to come out better in the exposure...
 
i also used the progrey g-120z magnetic holder to hold the filters and secure them to my nikon d810 with a nikon nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8... 
 
and with this being a quasi-long exposure of 11 seconds at a zoomed in focal length of 200mm, a stable and sturdy tripod is an absolute necessity in order to keep the image sharp...i wish to openly thank my sponsors who have always supported me through both the good and bad times...for truly this long exposure impression would not be possible without the use of my induro phq3 series 5-way panhead with tripod in combination with the progreyusa filters which i use with every photo i take...
 
"if nothing else...if i open my eyes, if i hope, if i cry, if i think, if i sigh, if i giggle, if i dance, if i love, if i breathe, then i have lived a full days worth of life...nothing is wasted, nothing" ― bodhinku, if nothing else
 
"i do not want you to just be into my photography, instead, i'd much rather you take a journey into my pictures, and feel the impression i have created, feel it with all your senses" ― bodhinku, into my photography
 
"contemplate without thinking. be certain only in your uncertainty. stop the world. slow down everything. let it all be. shut off the noise. hush. relax. seize this moment. reconnect. feel and sense what surrounds you. listen to all the colors of light whisper as they envelope you. see the melody and harmony that float about unnoticed. taste the solitude of all this wonderment. smell the beautiful silence. now discover your peaceful serenity. then, reach out and touch your faith with all your senses. this is my world. awaken!" ― bodhinku, my world
 
"my photography is my way of keeping a diary" ― bodhinku, my diary  
 
i leave you today wishing that bright joy 
and spiritual peace fill your life...
imploring you to make every moment count, 
no matter what, always and forever, 
for that is the only thing that truly matters...    
 
and above all else,
i hope this message and impression find you well.
 
namaste,
bodhi
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