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Significance of the Seemingly Ordinary: SOL24 Day 12

In a couple of spare moments between parent-teacher conferences today this email heading caught my eye: Significance of the Seemingly Ordinary. It was a Daily Good article, which always begin with a quote. Here was the one from today:

As I read through the teaser paragraph I became even more intrigued. It describes a movie where the character takes a photograph of the store across the street every morning at 8 o”clock. He has 4000 photos meticulously labeled and mounted in albums. Photos that are the same…and not the same. When he shows them to a blocked writer, the writer flips through the photos quickly, not knowing what to say, says, “They’re all the same.” The photographer replies to him, “You’ll never get it if you don’t slow down, my friend.” You can read more of the story here.

I found myself connecting on two different levels. The photographer in me is intrigued. Why take the same photo every day? But then again, I do find myself taking the same photos over and over again. Maybe the light is different, or the angles…or even my mood. I frequently take photos of this iconic palm tree–here’s a small sampling of my many photos of this one tree.

“One has to be in the same place every day, watch the dawn from the same house, hear the same birds awake each morning, to realize how inexhaustibly rich and different is sameness.”

The experience of taking the same photo over and over echoes what it means to be a teacher. Each day is filled with sameness. I greet the same faces, the same small humans for nearly a year. And yet, no two days are the same. At my best, I take hundreds of mental photos of my students every day as I strive to pay attention to the nuances of their individual learning processes. I need to know them–when the sun is shining, when the fog hides their features, in a tight close up, as the sun sets.

To be a teacher is to learn to appreciate the richness and difference of sameness. And as I navigate the sometimes groundhog’s day-ness of parent-teacher conferences I find myself thinking about sameness in a different way. During each conference I am taking stock of those thousands of mental images, knowing that supporting learners (and their parents) is in the small moments. It’s in the slowing down even when the world keeps urging us to speed up. When I got behind in my conference schedule today I was tempted to cut things short, to “catch up.” But the conversations were meaningful, adding new images to my store of mental photos of my students, their families, and their learning and I know I’ll be perusing them in the weeks to come.

And now I think I’ll be looking back over my photographs to see what else I can learn–from them and about myself.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Appreciation

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It’s so easy to get busy and overlook the bounty of everyday life. School started this week for me so I’ve been totally immersed in the classroom over the last couple of weeks. I’ve had to make an effort to take my camera out and find an interesting shot each day. Lucky for me, a focus on appreciating small details has helped in so many way. It has reminded me just how fortunate I am, pushing me to take a positive view even when I am feeling tired and overwhelmed with all there is to get done. And I am actively searching for ways to document my appreciation, letting an image represent a bigger idea.

At the end of the first week of school, Geoff and I decided even though Fridays are the day we feel exhausted, that we would take the time to watch the sunset and go out to dinner. There is something healing about watching the sky transform from blue to pinks and oranges. And the bubble man was out again too, creating kid-sized bubbles and coaching kids to run inside of them, trying to keep it from popping too soon. The kids delight in this game…and who can resist, especially when combined with the soothing feel of salt water on your feet?

Earlier in the week, one of my students came into the room with these beautiful flowers clutched in her fist. “They’re dahlias, Mrs. Douillard,” she announced. I love the geometry of these lovely blooms, my eye returns to them throughout the day as I notice new details.

I often complain about the gray of the marine layer we experience here on the coast. The clouds seem to flatten my photos, making everything feel drab and dull. This week, with a heatwave in our region–many areas of our county experience temperatures in the triple digits–I am appreciating the thick gray dampness that blankets the sky. Without air conditioning in our school, the fog has kept things a bit cooler and more bearable. I watched these seabirds frolic in the gray as I walked the beach on my way home from work the other day.

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Getting home last night, after our late dinner following our sunset expedition, I got out of the car and looked up. Through that one tree that grows along the side of our driveway, I caught a glimpse of the moon shining through. My camera was in my bag, so I pulled out my phone, framed my view through the branches of the tree and clicked the shutter. I appreciate the reflected glow of this celestial orb and the way it lights up the night. And my tree created a perfect, interesting frame to look through.

So, what are you appreciating this week? Take a look around for the little details that make a difference in your life or in the life of others. And as I consider life’s bounty, I also realize that people are suffering, dealing with natural disasters like hurricane Harvey, illness and death, war and conflict. Appreciation helps to keep me grounded and hopeful, and ready to reach out and help others in the ways that I can.

Share your #appreciation this week, maybe your photos will boost someone’s spirits or inspire them to take positive action. You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!) I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #appreciation.

Take a moment to reflect on small details and appreciate how they contribute to life’s bounty for you. Grab your camera and capture that appreciation in a photo. I look forward to seeing appreciation through your lens this week.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Burst

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Sometimes it seems that life happens in fits and bursts. Things roll along as usual, routines dictate daily activities, and even when life feels busy it still fits into the expected schedule. And then there are the unexpected bursts…of activity, of color, of life itself.

Last week I traveled to Washington, DC for some writing project work. When I arrived it was sunny and warm, beautiful springtime weather. As I walked around capitol hill, bursts of colorful blooms caught my eye. Pinks of all shades contrasted with the white of the stately legislature buildings. You might notice that this is the first burst of spring–bare trees stand in the background, still awaiting their brilliant green dresses of leaves.

When I returned back home on Sunday evening, I knew my week would be filled to overflowing…with parent/student/teacher conferences. I have a love/hate relationship with these meetings. I love talking with parents and supporting students as they share their learning with their families…but conference after conference is exhausting. We end up cramming a full day of teaching into a minimum day schedule, wolfing down some lunch and then settle into afternoons full of these meetings. To help brighten my week I couldn’t resist the daffodil stems at Trader Joe’s…they are like a burst of sunshine!

My schedule was simply too full for my after school walks on the beach, but I did manage to squeeze in a few minutes to stop by the beach on Tuesday just to get a glimpse of the surf. I stopped at a beach that has steep stairs to the shore and as I walked down them I noticed the native bush sunflowers bursting along the railing. They seemed to pose, begging me to take their photo!

To add to my already full week, I had an evening meeting scheduled too. After fighting rush hour traffic, I noticed that I had a few minutes before my meeting and that the sun was getting ready to set so I took a little side trip to find a viewing place. I was treated to a cute little park filled with people, some doing yoga, some with their bikes, others walking dogs, and some just sitting back on benches watching the sun dip into the ocean. My photo captured that burst of activity in silhouette with the sunset in the background.

And I noticed that the tree in my front yard…the one I have documented as #onetree…has had a growth spurt, a burst of bright green leaves. I guess spring is bursting out all over!

I have also been noticing my students interests and learning bursting at the seams. They can’t get enough information about the birds and eggs and feathers and nests we have been learning about. (Our science teacher brought in a collection of nests today for students to get a close look!)

And to end my week I longed for another burst of nature. I talked my husband into a short walk along the beach to watch the sunset after our trip to Costco for some groceries. We wandered down to the rocky jetty and sat for a while as we watched the sun sink lower and lower and the waves rush up higher and higher. I caught this burst of water while I watched.

So…what is bursting in your life this week? Colors? Blossoms? Learning? Or something else entirely? Take a look around and see what you can capture through your lens.

You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!) I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #burst for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

Be on the lookout for bursts this week…and share what you find with the rest of us! I can’t wait to see the bursts in your life.

Weekly Photo Challenge: One Tree

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We have a quirky tree that grows along the side of our driveway. At one time it was nearly choked to death with ivy growing up its trunk. It has a strange spiky trunk and a few broken branches that jut out in odd directions. But it is that very character that draws my attention to it almost every day. And it makes a perfect frame for varying light and sky conditions. I have tons of photos of this one tree. I took this one earlier in the week when I noticed that it was blooming…and the sun was reflecting off the leaves.

A few days before that I was noticing the sun, bright and summer-like, a very different kind of glow.

We had a foggy morning recently…and I had to stop as I got ready to get in my car to head to work to pull out my phone and capture the mistiness in a photograph. I love the way the morning sun creates an almost silhouette effect

Sometimes this one tree is the perfect frame for the sherbet colors of sunset, with soft and wispy clouds.

Or with the reds and pinks of a clearer sky. (You may also be noticing that the tree wasn’t in bloom for these pictures.)

The moon sometimes peeks through its branches, partially hidden in the milky white clouds.

Gray clouds with just a splash of blue appeared on one of those rare stormy days.

And the white puffballs look so soft you can almost feel them against the brilliant blue of the sky on this day.

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There is just something about the twists and turns of the branches of this one tree that creates interesting angles and draws my eye. It reminds me to look up, to pay attention to the light, to the clouds, to the moon…and more.

So, this week be on the lookout for your one tree (or one building or one hillside or one street corner) and document how it changes in different light, in different weather, at different times of the day or night.

You can post your photo alone or along with some words: commentary, a story, a poem…maybe even a song! I love to study the photographs that others’ take and think about how I can use a technique, an angle, or their inspiration to try something new in my own photography. (I love a great mentor text…or mentor photo, in this case!) I share my photography and writing on social media. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter using @kd0602. If you share your photos and writing on social media too, please let me know so I can follow and see what you are doing. To help our Weekly Photo community find each other, use the hashtag #onetree for this week and include @nwpianthology in your post.

Fine your one tree (or one something else) this week and spend some time noticing and documenting. I can’t wait to see what you learn when you pay close attention to your #onetree.