30 Day Project

I finished my personal challenge to photograph the river birch tree in my backyard each day for 30 days.

30 Day Project

On this rainy Monday in September I’m feeling a sense of accomplishment and also relief. While working on this project I made more than 375 photographs of the river birch tree.

I wish I could say that I felt that I made some beautiful art during this project. Or that I gained some deep insight into my photography practice. But I can’t.

My purpose was to commit to doing this one thing every single day for 30 days. And I am happy to say that I kept that commitment. The  biggest thing I learned was that once I picked up my camera to make photos of the tree I usually went on to make more photographs of other things I encountered in my daily life.

I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing — that the light is everything — that it is more than the sum
 of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

   — Mary Oliver

Daily Practice

The daily practice of making photographs enriches my life. I see beauty in my surroundings no matter where I am. And I feel wonder at the amazing grace of nature.

But the discipline of picking up my camera every single day no matter what else is going on in my life is one that I would like to continue. To look for and see beauty in my surroundings every single day is a joy, gratitude, and wonder giving practice.

This morning when I looked out at our leaf-covered deck, I saw beauty.

And when I noticed the sweet potato on the kitchen counter that had sprouted leaves I felt joy and gratitude for the beauty of simple things.

I’ve decided to put this gorgeous sweet potato in a jar of water and see how it grows.

Though August has come and gone, I read a Jane Hirschfield poem yesterday and loved it so I’m sharing it with you today…

August Day

You work with what you are given —
today I am blessed, today I am given luck.
It takes the shape of a dozen ripening fruit trees,
a curtain of pole beans, a thicket of berries.
It takes the shape of a dozen empty hours.
In them is neither love nor love’s muster of losses.
in them there is no chance for harm or for good.
Does even my humanness matter?
A bear would be equally happy, this August day,
fat on the simple sweetness plucked between thorns.
There are some who may think, “How pitiful, how lonely.”
Others must murmur, “How lazy.”
I agree with them all: pitiful, lonely, lazy.
Lost to the earth and to heaven,
thoroughly drunk on its whiskeys, I wander my kingdom.
— Jane Hirschfield

Have a beautiful week.

May you walk in beauty.