"To See A World In A Grain Of Sand" © Bonnie Feaster Chapa
Giclee Prints 18x24 and larger are Limited Editions.

Created in 2014 from an original photo taken by Bonnie Feaster Chapa July 2012, at South Padre Island, Texas.

My family and I were at the beach and I turned around and saw this “moment”. It was obvious it was this little girl’s first ever beach experience and her Mama was showing her the sand and reassuring her that those waves coming in and out were ok and there was nothing to be afraid of.

Two years later, I kept coming back to this seemingly, at the time, insignificant picture. Little did I know there was so much more to see. I mean, I knew, but I didn’t know. As most things do that grab me, I finally gave in and started to work on it because if I didn’t, it was going to continue to haunt me. As I got further along, I started to notice that the water and the white foam capped waves on the beach no longer looked like that to me. It started to look like clouds in the sky and all at once it came together. They were not on the beach. They were in Heaven. Both of them. Literally.

I have always believed that before babies are born, they are up there in Heaven and before it’s their time here on Earth, God and Angels choose our babies and know every hair on their head, every wrinkle on their tiny toes. They tell those babies everything there is to know about their waiting Mama that loves them, just as much as they are loved in Heaven. They have a destiny, a purpose and it is given to them there in Heaven and those Angels show them, while innocent, unborn and all knowing, what they can expect here, in our small insignificant incomparable world as we know it. This Angel is showing this little girl, by placing her hand on the sand that she can, in fact, as the title of this piece suggests, see the world in a grain of sand. She is Heaven sent. For how long or for what purpose, only God and the Angels know the answer.

Auguries of Innocence is a poem written by William Blake. An augury is a sign of what will happen in the future; an omen. If you read the whole poem, try thinking of it as if this Angel is telling this baby girl the ways of the world she is about to enter. In the poem, Blake pairs things with a broader vision, an expansive experience where innocence collides with corruption. The first stanza in the poem starts out:

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

and eternity in an hour.

Can we really see the world in a grain of sand? I believe we were shown how but sometimes, we forget how to see. Can we hold infinity in the palm of our hands? Our attention is lost in the endless blur called LIFE. Do you see the sacred in the mundane and the profound in the ordinary? It’s in the noticing. The smallest thing can be a gateway to an experience of extraordinary proportions if you just practice noticing. Everyday there are countless natural miracles around us. Those miracles are there waiting for us to see and notice them in our world. Angels and babies, beaches and Heaven…….greatness, perfection and virtue exists. It’s all right there, in just one grain of sand.

To read the entire poem, Auguries of Innocence by William Blake, go to http://bonniechapa.com/?page_id=2100 .


Open Edition Print hand signed by Bonnie Feaster Chapa.

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Printed on an ultra smooth matte finish archival fine art paper to give you the highest resolution and color saturation possible. Pigments are archival and resist fading. Prints come with a white border around them to make framing easier.

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