Reset

Asparagus and Celsoia

“each reset creates evidence that a hard moment can be survived without being endlessly solved. sensitivity and care can remain intact. the change lies in refusing to let every emotional disturbance expand until it occupies the whole internal landscape.”
— ayushi thakkar, the life-changing skill to stop rumination

Homework

The only time in a day full of appointments I could make a visit to the farm was late morning. I wanted to take a picture of the bee boxes to see if they might be a fitting subject for the assignment, Seasonal Shift, for my online class, Stillness of Summer with Paul Sanders. The idea being that we students would return to the same spot each week over the next 2 months and photograph it as a record of season passing through us. By September we will have a set of similar pictures, but we will also have a record of how the light, the weather, and even our own feelings and mood have changed. I think this scene might work.

Weather: Hazy, Hot and Humid (almost unbearable). Sunny.

Time of day: 10:30 am

Notes: I used my digital camera and 85mm lens. It might be fun to try a longer focal length and shallower depth of field. It was so bright today, I had to guess at all the settings and hope for the best.

Does this feel like I felt?

These days, I am sharing excerpts from a few trusted sources on repeat. Here’s a few words from Paul Sanders and his post from today, Overperforming and underachieving.

So here’s the invitation, to you and honestly to myself as much as anyone. Put the camera up not to prove something, but to receive something. Let the light find you before you go chasing it. Let the image be unfinished, unpolished, unperformed, true to what actually passed in front of you rather than what you think will get picked.

You’ll be amazed how much lighter that is to carry.

Because in the end, the picture is never for the strangers you’ll never meet. It is always for you.