Ethan and I are playing a game where one of us takes a close up picture of something in our yard, and the other one has to find it. Here's a sampling...
Sandra, I thought of this quote from Just Add Light and Stir as I was playing this game with Ethan today: "Some families travel. Some stay in one place, and come to know that place well."
It's interesting too, as I sit here and look at these photos again, that there's not anything particularly exotic about our back yard—it's kind of overgrown and weedy (as you might have guessed from a couple of the photos)—yet it looks so beautiful from this perspective. Especially that middle one. (Ethan was proud of that one.)
The quote first said "...the quote from today's Just Add light..."
photos by Karen and Ethan James
Dear Sandra,
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I was with my son when we read the post here.
The first thing he said was: but how can she write something like this everyday ? (I know he means something interesting about unschooling, with words that can help people understand and live better unschooling.)
;-)
I told him that, on this blog, sometimes a post is coming from your website, or your book, or an unschooling discussion. Maybe I forgot something ? Can you tell us more, if you want to share about how you can write something so inspiring everyday, never missing a single day ?
As for me, I was touched by the same than Karen:
"Some families travel. Some stay in one place, and come to know that place well."
It is so true !
I love to take pictures around me, sometimes small things or part of them.
Living unschooling with my children, I had time to look at things around us so many times, in different ways. Different days, different moments, different seasons, different children's ages, different activities, always the same backyard, so many different point of views. I found that our small backyard, our neighbourhood, the wood where we go walking many times a week for years, are always kind of new, and interesting. Some trees have grown, some are dead, some flowers are new, the sky is not always the same colour, people we met in the wood, or at the park are not always the same people. Some are living near from here, some are on vacations. Taking pictures helped me unschooling. Walking, and hiking, with my children, helped me unschooling. Writing helped me unschooling. All those helped me unschooling, looking at my children, looking at things around, not thinking about something else, or the future, just observing, living the present moment.
Thanks for sharing this, Sandra, and for this blog, and for all.
Thanks to you both, Karen and Ethan, for sharing your beautiful pictures!
Edith
Thank, Edith. It's interesting that the day your son asked how I could write something interesting every day, I had quoted someone else entirely. :-)
ReplyDeleteI might do that again tomorrow.
Sometimes I find a page I've never quoted before, and set up two or three blog posts out in the future, and then find photos to go with them later. Sometimes I have a photo, and search through my site or book for a quote to go with it. Sometimes there's something I've written casually that could easily be lost forever that had a poetic or profound line in it, so then I'm glad to have a place to share it again, where it might live a while and be useful.
Some nights it's nearly midnight at my house (the deadline, when the mailer's two-hour window to pick it up and mail it starts), and I have NO IDEA what I'm going to use. A few times, I've gone back and found something three years old and done a re-run, with a different photo (a time or two I just lifted the whole post, thinking most of today's subscribers weren't around then, and those who were might not mind a repeat.
Too many times, I find a quote I think is perfect and that I think has not been used, and when I search the posts to make sure it's unique and fresh, I find I've already used it twice. DOH!
It's not always easy, but I'm always glad to see it in the e-mail and know that others are seeing it too, and that it might make some lives more peaceful, creative and joyous.
Thanks for taking time to answer my question, Sandra!
ReplyDeleteJerome