96/365-2 Displayed

"Going For A Spin"

I liked the bright colors of this garden spinner displayed outside of a toy store.

95/365-2 Imperfect

"Laying It All Out There"

How do the months pass so quickly?  Today, being the first Saturday of the month, is self portrait Saturday.  The goal of today's prompt was to embrace and photograph our imperfections.   As I thought about what to do with this, I realized how much I have grown as a person and a photographer over the past sixteen months of taking self portraits.  This time last year I would have been overwhelmed by this prompt.  I would have gotten bogged down by the many imperfections that I have and had no clue how to start either photographing them or embracing them.

I have become much more comfortable in my own skin.  Instead of looking at every photo of myself and looking for what is wrong, I start with looking for things that I like.  I still have many imperfections, but I have learned to look beyond them and I don't worry as much about them.  I could definitely do without all the wrinkles here, but they too can be put in perspective.  A fellow photographer said that all of our wrinkles are well earned and that each holds a story, a memory or a laugh.  When I think about them that way, they don't seem so bad.  

So here I am...wrinkles (both me and my shirt) and no make-up.  What you see is what you get.

94/365-2 Look Up

"Layers of Life"

I am so grateful for today.  As it turned out, I have had all day at home.  This gave me the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather (much improved over last night's tornadoes) and play with my Lensbaby, which has been neglected lately. In addition to all of this, Weber had training today so was able to come home for lunch.  I could used to this lifestyle quite easily!

This photo was taken while laying down on the ground and looking up through the new growth on the shrubs at the budding trees in the background.  All of the new layers of life are so beautiful.

Here is another shot from today.

Now it is off to play for a Taize service and share a little food and fellowship with friends afterwards.

93/365-2 Where I Work

"Hard Working Keys"

I have been teaching in the same place since 1992.  I can't believe it has been 24 years; well, really 23.  I took a year off early on to teach elementary music at the school that my girls were attending at the time.  Back then, as a doctoral student, I figured this would just be a job that would give me some experience, something to put on my resume, a stepping stone of sorts that would allow me to move on to bigger and better things.  After all, everyone knows that community colleges are the stepchildren in higher education.

As it turns out, I really love this environment.  My classes are small and I have an opportunity to get to know every music major that comes through our program.  What I have learned about myself in my twenty plus years of teaching at Brookhaven is that though I am trained as a music theorist and that is what I "do," my calling is really as a teacher.  God just put in the field of music to live out that call.  I know this because I am happy teaching just about anything - music theory and composition for sure, but also knitting and journaling and study skills.  There is just something about helping people learn, learn anything, and grow as human beings that feeds my soul.

Not only have I taught at the same school all these years, I have also taught in the same classroom most of that time.  Until I began the Capture Your 365 project it had never crossed my mind to take photos at school.  I am so grateful for prompt's like today's.  How sad would it be to come to retirement (should I ever get to that point) and have not a single visual reminder of where I spent so much of my life and gave so much of myself to others.

Though I do a lot of work outside of the classroom, it is in class with my students that I feel like I do my best work.  This is why I chose to focus on my classroom rather than office or dining room table at home.  Everything that I teach involves piano playing.  This photo is the piano in my classroom with a glimpse of the room itself reflected in the piano.  The music is a Chopin prelude that one of my classes was analyzing today.  You may notice an important thing missing in this shot - students.  I did not feel comfortable photographing my students and posting their pictures online.

I feel so blessed to have a job that I love doing exactly what I want to be doing.  My students are fantastic as are my colleagues.  As a teacher, I am never going to be rich in the material sense, but there is no amount of money that can buy the kind of joy I receive from being in the classroom every day.

92/365-2 Framed

"Who Framed Who?"

This isn't the image I thought I was after, but I like it.  

91/365-2 Focus

"Feeling Low"

I personally am not feeling low, but when I looked at a stack of papers on my desk in which a piece of music was turned sideways, this poor little bass clef looked so sad.  Though I have been looking at bass clefs for MANY years, I had never noticed their "un-smiley" face before.  This made me chuckle.

Today's prompt had more to do with technique, achieving sharp focus than the philosophical ideas surrounding focus, but I had no idea what I was going to photograph so this became it.  I think that the quote is sound advice for us all.

90/365-2 Garden

"Garden?"

Confession time.  At this very moment my garden is non-existent.  I have dreams. I have plans.  I have seeds.  I have raised beds.  I have had no time.  I would love to have a bountiful garden this year.  It makes me happy to grow my own vegetables, but right now I just don't have the time to nurture a garden.  The flip side of a garden making me happy is that if it fails, it makes me incredibly unhappy.  I would rather not plant it than feel like a failure if I can't keep it going.

All that said, I was at a lost for garden pictures today.  I ended up wandering around the yard looking for something, anything that would pass for a garden photo.  The best I could do was a blooming "weed" in the grass.  This bright yellow flower was standing out in the middle of the grass all by itself.  It looked so happy, so cheerful, so proud.  And, it really is pretty.

If the irises had been blooming or the vegetables growing or even the trees budding, I probably would not have noticed this little yellow flower.  How often do we miss beauty in the small things because we have our intentions set on the big picture, on what we are "supposed" to see, or only on what we want to see.  Most of us don't want to see weeds in our lawns, but I am OK with this little bit of sunshine on the ground.