It’s been a long time.
Photography is my passion. I lose time in it. And sometimes, that’s the very reason I just can’t do it.
I’m not blaming the kids, or my decision to make dinner as often as I can–a real dinner, home-made. This is what I signed up for–parenthood, the Kissing Monster, applying Band-Aids, breaking up brother fights.
They’re old enough now that they’d be mentally fine opening up a can of soup for dinner or making a PB& J. In fact, they sometimes wonder why we need to eat dinner together.
Yet, this is the time I need to spend.
The days are long, but the years are short.
I can’t remember where I heard that quote, but it’s true. When the older kids were younger, my husband, Paul, was in college, and I worked full time. He started a business, and I went to massage school.
All of the sudden, in the midst of raising 8 children, I realized that I’d missed a lot of time with them.
They’d had a parent at home, for Paul worked from home and ran the house with almost military-like precision. Because I could make more money, I massaged, taught classes, traveled to teach.
When I traveled the last few years, I took that time to create an image, because the time was by myself when I wasn’t working. For myself.
I do not regret not having produced more, not having created more, not spending more time in Photoshop.
It snowed last week, just a little. We sometimes get snow in Cincinnati, but nothing to shake a stick at, usually. At least, not in comparison to where I grew up, next to Lake Huron.
For the last month, I’ve been getting up early to work out, meditate, read, etc. Several of the books I’ve read lately mentioned re-discovering how to have fun (for those of us who slog away and don’t do much after work or don’t have hobbies).
“What did you like to do as a kid? Was it swinging? Climbing trees? Running and playing tag?”
When I saw the snow, I realized how much I loved to make snow angels when I was younger, especially where there was So. Much. Snow. (I’m talking over a foot of snow falling in a day, on a regular basis).
While there wasn’t really enough snow for me to make an impressive snow angel, I realized I could have a lot of fun creating my own type of snow angel.
Yes, it was 22° F. And yes, I took my boots off.
Our 14-year old son came with me to help me “scout” locations. The original plan was a nearby cemetery, where they have a cool little bridge crossing a duck filled lake. But it wasn’t meant to be, as mourners were attending a closing ceremony, as it were. It just seemed a little too disrespectful.
Nearby is a “nature preserve”, otherwise known as “this is swampland and we can’t build houses here, so we’ll call it a ‘nature preserve'”. Elijah and I trudged about a bit, when we finally found this little swamp pond. He was kind enough to hold my coat for me and press the shutter.
Creativity and Photoshop are funny things for me sometimes. I had an exact idea of what I wanted the conceptual photo to be, but once I worked on it, something a little better arrived. And the bunny. He showed up too.
Sometimes, we just need a little push to get our mojo back.