Photo quote de jour


Notice anything different? Normally, every Sunday I post photos the mountain of books and magazines I read every week. It's an OCD-like archive and a visual creative springboard for me. I love book jacket design and all books are splayed open to show both front and back covers, but not this week. My camera is damaged and I won't have another camera for a day or two. I feel bereft, as if missing a limb or eye. I never leave home without a camera. Even peering through the windshield at a stoplight (as seen above) can yield the unexpected: a torn flag after the recent storm, a traffic sign for a library I'd never noticed before, trees on the verge of greening. Writers and artists notice things that others don't. We're sponges for details, soaking up nuances, over heard conversations, observing patterns of speech or the microscopic design in a leaf. But you don't have to be a creative type to reap the bounty of observation. Just do it. When was the last time you studied the lines on the palm of your hand? Or, breathed in the scent of your meal before you ate it? Or, got lost in an alien world between the pages of a good book?  Nature is turning over a new leaf. How about you?

Last night, I finished reading Devotion, a recent memoir by Dani Shapiro. I hate reviews with adjectives like transcendent or luminous, but this book is. It's unflinching examination of the meaning of life through faith resonated with me. Every middle-aged woman who has lost a parent or bits of themselves through marriage, motherhood or just living, will relate to it. She has a video on her website about the best selling book at http://danishapiro.com/ Better still, check out her blog. Her most recent entry is about the ups, downs and middle ground of being a successful writer. It's not about the brass ring.

I won't share the rest of my stack of reading, but consider this a taste for the coming week's theme "expect the unexpected".