simplify

What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer.
-William Albert Allard

I often spend too much time trying to find the perfect quote, and a layout that speaks to me. Frustration mounts as I look at the clock and see just how long I have been sitting here. I get up, walk a way and take a break. When I come back it all seems to click and I feel I can let go now, having found peace.

***

the dogwood

After all, I don’t see why I am always asking
for private, individual, selfish miracles
when every year there are miracles like … dogwood.
~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

***

Again, no wise words for you… but also no whining. I step out onto the front porch early in the morning, and at sunset to capture the dogwood. What more do I need? What more can I ask for.

“Often we find it easier to think our way around things rather than to feel our way through them:”
― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening:

***

The rhododendrons bloom as the eagles fly, and the rowers are back on the lake. I wonder how many springs I have left, and quickly let that idea drop. Choosing instead to just feel all the feelings without barriers.

bits and pieces of april

“We begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found,
already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be.”

― Anne Lamott

April arrives bringing with it beautiful signs of spring. I emerge myself in cherry trees and daffodils, not wanting to miss a single sign of her awakening. I work most days in the garden, weeding and planting new flowers and getting the vegetable garden ready to plant. We celebrate Brandon’s birthday, all of us gathered for dinner, and I marvel at the man he has become. There is a grand Easter egg hunt with the neighborhood kids, where we meet new people who bring us into their fold without question, and I find myself feeling pretty settled in this place we now call home. Percy and I take long walks on Tuesdays and I teach him the names of all the flowers popping up in the neighborhood gardens. We watch for eagles and look for bugs and I once again count my blessings.

***

fresh eyes

“But unless things are seen with fresh eyes,” he added, “nothing’s worth writing down.”

― Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku

***

He watches the eagles that sour above the lake. It is a five eagle day Gramma, he says joyfully. I wonder if the eagles have always done this, or if it something new this spring. My guess is I just never paid attention, for this is not the first time he has opened my eyes to the beauty around me. Fresh eyes I say to him! Later I make fried rice for dinner and watch as Baker licks up the rice I have spilled here and there on the floor. Sometimes the simplicity of joy surprises me.