Spring is a complicated time in my life. I love the pulse of new beginnings, but in the backdrop, loss tends to weave in and out, forcing me to acknowledge its presence. To crawl out of this place, I tend to pay attention to the flickers of beauty that accompany spring.
I’ve always loved sunflowers. The stalks are tough and resistant, while the flowered face welcomes its admirers. I like the idea of a flower possessing grit, but beauty too.
This is one of my favorites shots of the season. The interplay between light and dark accentuates all of my feelings right now. I love how the image is only of a tree and its branches, but after an initial glance, there is so much more that is whispering in the spaces in between and around curves and edges.
The blue. Water. Sky. Majestic, but comforting, there is a soothing quality to these flowers. Focusing on the blue helps me pay attention to my quiet and remembering that, always, if I want to reach for it, stillness is humming in the background.
My final shot is a tribute to strength. That at the end of the day, there is heartache sometimes, but also a deep beating of hope. I like the bareness of the branches and the idea that we all are more alike than different.
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. – Seneca
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
Lovely photos, Rudri! Ahhh. Spring 🙂
Thanks, Windy. Glad you appreciated them.
Gorgeous pictures. Not sure which I like better the view from under the trees…with the leaves or without the leaves. I think we see the bare trees about the same. I find them just as gorgeous as the full trees and yes at our core we are so much alike.
Bare and full trees – I love that you see them with a universality. Thanks for adding your insight.
Beautiful! xoxo
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. – Seneca” Yes. And love the photos. Happy Spring!
Gorgeous photos, words and quotes.
I don’t have any complications with spring with heavy losses. Just summer and winter – the two extremes. In the summer, I tend to really experience more grief memories. Spring to me is so joyous I can barely contain it.
Beautiful! Love the Seneca quote.
Gorgeous.
I love the second picture, too, and often find myself photographing similar scenes with light and dark. Love your accompanying words for each photo!
Thanks, Christy. Glad you enjoyed my version of Spring.