The Golden Spiral

Life spirals

in ever widening circles,

elliptical orbits…

passing only once en route

to some unknown end;

sometimes we almost touch the past

but can’t go back again.

Through each mistake, in every trial—

conviction holds the key;

a lesson learned at every turn

upon our path to ‘be’

© Ginny Brannan 2015

Image shared by Tess Kincaid/Magpie Tales

The Golden Spiral is a non-linear shape occurring in nature, for example the arms of spiral galaxies, or in phyllotaxis of leaves, or the spiral of a nautilus shell, sometimes these are also referred to as a Fibonacci spiral. Perhaps this term isn’t exactly impressive on its own, until you realize that this ratio is the key to everything from encrypting computer data, to the numbers of spirals on a sunflower head, to our own limbs and why the Mona Lisa is so pleasing to the eye. The idea of this ever-widening yet proportionate shape intrigues me, because life in general is not linear, but full of  twists and turns. And so this piece was inspired, not just as reference to shape, but as reference to the spiral of  ‘life’ itself…