“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”
Lillia: This week you attended a big sleepover birthday party. You didn’t get much sleep, but you had an absolute blast! When you were younger you always had a hard time with social gatherings like that, so for years we’ve just avoided them. You are a very sensitive person, both physically and emotionally, and I think you tend to get very overwhelmed by all of the noise and chaos. Before the sleeping (or not-sleeping) part of the party, you all went out for dinner. I was a little worried about you not finding something you wanted to eat, as that’s always been a problem for you, but you seemed to have done just fine. In fact, you confessed that you drank a big glass of Mountain Dew! I had to laugh at that, as it’s so out of character for you. I love it!
Zane: This week you’ve been regaling us with all sorts of adorable songs and fingerplays that you’ve been learning at preschool. You know some of the words, but you get stuck sometimes so I prompt you. But, you absolutely insist that no one sings with you — you want to do it by yourself! We’ve heard all about gray squirrels and their bushy tails, and five little pumpkins sitting on a gate. I love that you enjoy music and singing so much. You’re probably the only three year-old I’ve ever met that likes “The Sound of Music,” but you actually request to watch it sometimes! You never make it through the whole thing, of course, but you do seem to enjoy it, especially the musical numbers.
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
— Robert Frost
I know this poem might feel a little cliché to some people, but it’s always been one of my favorites. For Christmas in 1998 (I was 17) my grandmother gave me a beautiful, hardcover anthology of Frost’s poetry, ordered thematically by the seasons of the year and accompanied by beautiful photographs of the natural world; it is one of my most beloved possessions. I have always loved poetry, but I find that with each year of my life it becomes more and more meaningful to me. And, now I find myself drawn to the woods to make my own photographs, my own homage to the beauty of the natural world. Thank you, Gram, for that long-ago gift that is still giving me pleasure and inspiring me all of these many years later.
