This collection offers the reader moments of revelation—spiritual awakenings that deepen the soul. They are moments experienced through touch, personal reflection, self-acceptance, gratitude, laughter, celebration, and empathy with others.

We are made whole as we become aware of the wisdom of our breath; when we are present in the moment; when we are receptive to the vibrant reality of another being; and when we touch and are touched lovingly. We are restored when our hearts break open—in times when we are deeply moved by joy and sorrow; when we express gratitude for the good in our lives; when we forgive ourselves and others. It is the feeling of having been cleansed, like the earth after heavy rain.

The photographs were made in a variety of settings: therapeutic, religious, and medical, and include key moments in the human life cycle that relate to birth, illness, loss, and friendship.

We encounter a nurse communing with a newborn; a doctor soothing a traumatized child; a disfigured woman receiving a priestly benediction; a cardiac patient in heartfelt gratitude after surgery. And in other moments, a psychotherapist provides unconditional acceptance to her client; a woman in a wheelchair at the beach greets the open sky with outstretched arms; and a home-care aide comforts an elderly Alzheimer's patient.

Why make these photographs? Because I am profoundly touched by how we attend to each other’s wounds—how we give to and care for one another, and decided (early in my career), in a world in need of affirmation, to mine for images that illuminate and enlighten—images that comfort and sustain, images that bind us to one another. To affirm is to validate our humanity, to say yes to our existence. This validation is the very breath of the healing image. The healing image is autonomous in its grace and warmth. It is an object of contemplation, an icon that embodies the inner truth of things. In Thomas Merton's words, it is “the highest expression of praise and worship" and cannot help but be an offering, a testament to life and goodness.

With this collection we come to know moments meant to be recorded by loitering angels. In the serenity each moment gifts us with, we discover that our essential core is peaceful and whole, that life’s treasures are not to be found in the knowledge or assets we accumulate, but in the love we freely give away.

Here they are: photographs that reminds us to nourish the light within—to turn to, and return to our true nature. In the reconciled stillness of the photographs, a voice cries out—“you must help carry the world."

Heal yourself and you can heal the world.

Abraham Menashe
New York City, 1984