Wednesday, January 22, 2014
I saw this sign as I passed the window of a local gym today and was immediately drawn to it. I had to stop myself from running inside and demanding to meet the person that was busier than me. Instead I stood outside wondering if this person ever wakes up at 5 am to make breakfast, lunch, and pet meals. I wondered if he had ever prepared his child a ziploc of dog food while making the dog a gourmet turkey sandwich. I wondered if he had recited quadratic equations out loud in the school drop off lane while replacing dog kibble with a bag of smart food popcorn. I wondered if he had ever opened his computer bag to grab his power cord only to find out that what he was actually holding in his hand was a pair of black volleyball socks. I wondered if he was ever ready for lunch at 8 am. That's when I decided not to go into the gym to meet this physically fit individual after all. He deserved an award or a prize of some kind, and the only thing that I had to offer him was a snack sized bag of dog food and a pair of dirty socks.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
When the girls come home with the "bring in a photo" assignment, I'm toast. What the teachers don't realize is that I have thousands of photographs of the girls' childhood. Yesterday the photo request came on a particularly horrible day. My dad had a heart attack, and I couldn't keep the world from spinning or the tears from falling. I can't keep my babies from getting older. I can't keep my parents from getting older. The tears made my screen blurry as I searched for the photo, and yet they made something else very clear to me. My passion for photography is driven by the fact that for one two hundred and fiftieth of a second, I CAN make the world stop. I stop the world so that I remember all of life's details. I remember pink tights, round tummies, giggles, stamps on hands, undies hanging out, and crooked eyebrows checking themselves out in the mirror. I know one day my daughter will understand my tears when she remembers this day. Until then, I will continue to stop the world from spinning one photograph at a time.