I was walking earlier this week along the path that passes near a wetland area down the hill from our barn. It was very late in the afternoon -- getting toward sunset, actually -- and, looking down, I noticed that golden, end-of-day light was back-lighting wildflowers at my feet. I got down on my hands and knees for a closer look and realized that the flowers were bleeding hearts, which are favorites of mine. I had a small camera kit with me, and a tripod -- how lucky was that?!! -- and quickly (I knew the wonderful light wouldn’t last long) I made a few photographs. The resulting image is posted above.
Another day I made an image of a Spring blossom on our magnolia tree, a brightly-colored background created by Tibetan prayer flags that hang in our yard. As I thought about the post I’d do today, it seemed that these two images would pair nicely because both scenes were...well, so very simple and commonplace.
I remembered something Annie Dillard wrote in “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek”:
If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.
