From the roof of Palais Garnier, an angel serving Poetry wonders if there's any in Montparnasse, towering in the gloom to the south.

A small, thoughtful gesture at the base of the largest brass Buddha in the world at Tōdai-ji temple in Nara, Japan.

A lone worshipper at the Torii gate leading to the “floating” Shinto shrine on Miyajima.

Because the island was originally considered sacred, pilgrims were forbidden – an obvious design flaw worship-wise. So in a parse worthy of the finest $500/hr attorney, the shoreline at both high tide and low tide was calculated, and in the 6th century, a shrine was built on pilings in between: technically not on the island, your honor! Pilgrims – of any species – come on down!

Stone in balance with bamboo at the historic Kikuya House in Hagi, Japan.

A kabuki actor transforms himself into a female character for a performance in Tokyo. It's a meticulous, time-consuming (and definitely ambidextrous!) process, and in every brushstroke, every gesture, you can't help but feel the resonance of centuries of craft and ritual.

Shipwreck on the edge of Tomales Bay, Inverness, California

“He cried in a whisper at some image, at some vision — he cried out twice, a cry that was no more than a breath: The horror! The horror!”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness