Tag: photos

long shadows

election-day-shadowsA year ago today was an intensely emotional day. At this moment, I can’t recall any other comparable days in my life, wherein I felt both joy and despair so close together. The intensity of the emotions I felt that day about public events easily rival any that I have felt with respect to events in my own personal life.

I have thought back many times this past year that I wish I could have bottled the giddiness I felt when I cast my vote, excited about my participation in the historic occasion of electing the first woman president of the United States. I’ve wished that I could tap back into that momentarily unfettered optimism that kept a genuine smile on my face as I stood outside our town’s polling place, holding signs for both local and national candidates, and waving cheerfully at all who passed.

We all know how things turned out that evening. And that day has cast a long shadow across the past year for me. Again, there are few events that have transpired in my lifetime that have so deeply affected me. Not a day has gone by this past year that I have not given my thoughts, and often my time and energy, in big ways and small, into addressing the results of that day.

unexpected grace

paper-curl

It’s amazing to me how sometimes something trivial and ordinary can appear both beautiful and remarkable, given the right set of circumstances. This little scrap of paper, torn from some packaging and left on a table, caught the afternoon light coming in from the window to reveal in its shadow an unexpectedly elegant spiral.

leaf lines

When it’s after 11, and you really need to get to sleep, you struggle to come up with what to post for your daily post. You’ve toyed around with all kinds of post ideas during the day, but then you’ve run out of both time and energy. Ultimately, you decide once more to post a bunch of photos of leaves. In this case the leaves in the photos had all caught your eye for their striking pattern of lines, with veins contrasting with the body of the leaf. And also in this case you are really me. And both you and I should really get to sleep.

lily pods

lily-seed-pods

These seed pods caught my eye on my walk this morning. I believe that they are lily seed pods. I find it rather striking how lacy the pod casings are. They look so delicate and fragile. It’s hard to imagine both that these pods would have been fresh and green only a few weeks ago, and that these filigreed pods and their rather brittle-looking stems were strong enough to have weathered a fairly severe wind storm only a week ago.

 

 

a walk in the woods

While my daughter was off on a hike of her own with friends, my son and I headed out for a walk in some woods in a neighboring town. We both enjoyed the fresh fall air, and I especially enjoyed the glow of the late afternoon light.

(not quite) back in the swing of things

swing chain, triangle

It’s apparently hard for me to get back into the swing of posting daily.

swing

But I won’t let a day of failure keep be from my goals. I’ll climb back up on that swing, and start kicking my legs again.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Even if it means posting a bunch of photos that I took years ago (and may well have posted here years ago).

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Before you know it, I’ll get into the rhythm of it, and feel the breeze in my hair. (Blog posts cause a bit of wind, don’t they? Sometimes they may, at least, be full of hot air.)

Not dead yet

x-eyed-pumpkin

Here it is, November 1st, and I haven’t posted since April. Some have wondered if the blog (at least this one) is good and dead. However, I’m willing to declare that this blog is not dead yet.

Since I started this blog over 10 years ago, I have participated in some sort of daily posting every November. Here’s to (at least) one more go. (Expect a high percentage of leaf photos, musings about the rapid passage of time, and filler text.)

cracking a little

Somehow, 2 weeks have gone by without me posting.

asphalt-yellowFalling behind in my goals, once again. (What’s new?) I haven’t exactly been cracking under the pressure, but the constant strain of the news cycle has certainly been wearing down on me.

brick, cracks

I haven’t managed to work on my next essay for the 52 essays project. Honestly, the news of the travel ban knocked the wind out of me. One blow among many coming from this new regime, but one that hit hard, because it affects so many issues that I care deeply about. It affected so many lives. I haven’t yet found the words to write about that yet. Or I haven’t yet managed to gather all the words I’m finding into a coherent group of words.

concrete-blue

But I did want to post something. It’s been a while since I’ve posted photos. I’m not feeling quite cheery enough to post cheery photos. Looking through my collections, I found I had a lot of photos of cracks. Somehow, my eye is often drawn to breakage..

cracked rock

I find beauty in the irregularity of cracks. I am drawn to the imperfections.

wood

I chose these from among dozens of related photos as they show a range of materials: wood, stone, brick, asphalt and concrete. All of them hard and solid, used to build walls or roads. Yet all of them still susceptible to the forces of time and weather.

And all have gained a more interesting story to tell than the original unblemished whole.

writing goals for 2017

I’ve never been a big one for resolutions¹, but this year I find myself full of resolve. I have a number of goals: personal, professional and political. Among my personal goals are  revamping this space, and getting back to posting regularly every month. I don’t think I can swing daily posting, but I should be able to manage once or twice a week. I would also like to get back to writing, for fun and personal growth. To that end, I have signed on to a rather daunting project: I will be writing and sharing a new essay every week for the year. I’ve nearly run out of week this week, but I plan to post my first essay tomorrow.
2017ice

The damaged “2017” of an ice sculpture in Boston, from New Year’s Day. A number of artists produce and display ice sculptures around Boston on New Year’s Eve. This year, the next day was quite warm, and the ice sculptures were a little worse for wear. But still cool. (No pun intended.) In any case, I thought it fitting to post this damaged, day-late view of the new year, since I am so often running late and a little bit rough around the edges. 

¹ At least not one for posting resolutions before I have achieved them. But I am still rather amused by my retrospective resolutions of 2006, posted in my 2nd month of blogging.