I follow the blogs of a few photographers and a popular post lately has been "this is what ________ looks like". The photographer chooses a topic and photographs said topic. Very clever because it forces you to really examine all of those minutes and moments you might otherwise take for granted.
Since the theme of luck might have run its course, maybe I'll switch gears and go for "this is what _______
looks like" for a few months.
We got our tree this weekend. I had originally planned this outing where we were going to set a tradition of cutting down our own Christmas tree in the mountains. We were going to drive for two hours, hike through snow, cut down the tree, etc., etc. Peter was calling me Clark Griswold and for good measure, I was singing Christmas carols with the kids in the car until we hit Golden and Pete suggested we pull off to go see Red Rocks. This is as far as we went. I took a few pictures for our Christmas card even though the kids spent most of the time in the acoustically perfect amphitheater yelling at each other and crying. SO.... we went to Costco and bought our Christmas tree for $40 and put it up in the living room.
The kids were so excited they danced around it as Peter tried to steady it in the stand. Once it was secured and we cut the strings, the tree was a little lopsided but the kids couldn't wait to put on the ornaments.
And for this reason, I thought this week I should go with the theme "this is what happiness looks like".
everyone here is happy, Parker and Thomas singing "O Christmas Tree" and Henry loves the ornaments
And not-so-happy... they loved Red Rocks but really didn't want the paparazzi there
Earlier in the week, we had Thomas' 7th birthday party and that was full-on craziness for two hours... but there is nothing like a birthday party to make my children happy.
I have to concentrate on this visible evidence that there is plenty of happiness around me. Photography for me provides this balance between how I feel and what is seen. It seems to ease the tension of a stressful day or certain sadnesses. I know a good photographer captures that confluence of the two but it rarely seems the case with me. I really believe in the beauty of the everyday, of the mundane, but I would like to more actively capture the reality of our life, my life. So maybe happiness is not the aim of "this is what ________ looks like" but instead "this is what a day looks like". Starting tomorrow... "this is what a day (my day) looks like".
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