"Uber alle Gipfeln ist Ruh" , Erik Pevernagie Oil on canvas, 80 x 1OO cm

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Above all summits, it is calm. In all the tree-tops, you feel a breath scarcely; The birds in the forest are silent. Only wait, soon you will rest as well!" ( Über allen Gipfeln Ist Ruh, In allen Wipfeln Spürest du Kaum einen Hauch; Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde. Warte nur, balde ruhest du auch.)

So was the mood of Goethe on the evening of September 6, 1780. He was then just 31 years old.

As we walk through life, fleeting emotional episodes may keep on twinkling, curl up in the hive of our recollection, and enrich our imagination. In the same vein, esthetic allurement and poetic gracefulness may possess us, besiege our mind, light up our thinking, and shape our future. When the brain becomes too tired, however, the mind stops decrypting the perceptions in our mental world and surrenders willingly to the unguarded moments of life. For some time, the safeguards of our thinking pattern weaken and discontinue the decoding of the chips of daily reality. The mind picks, then, the instants which are above suspicion, pure and innocent, like picking flowers in the pasturelands of the first morning.

As we go through the flightiness of time, dazed by the inebriety of our mental time voyage, we must hit the brakes, now an then. We must not shy away from questioning ourselves when we wade through the tanning mist of our memory that embroiders our thoughts or distorts them.

The picture invites us to make a temporary retreat from the material world and indulge in a moment of spiritual meditation.

Phenomenon: Rest, retreat, meditation

Factual starting point: Man (Goethe) sitting