ENLIGHTEN (word #6)

ENLIGHTEN

Is an "art" word and a "spiritual" word:

A number of years ago, eleven to be exact, I was given the assignment in a black and white film photography class to shoot a picture of "light". This picture of Gary is what I set up, shot and developed (in the darkroom) to turn in for the assignment and for class evaluation. The overall consensus was that this photo is very "contrasty" (no kidding), and that I had a handsome husband (right again)! What I learned: photography is ALL ABOUT "light". You know the saying: " add some light on the subject", or ENLIGHTEN? Well, that is an "art" saying and all about photography.

I LOVE shooting pictures at the beach. I LOVE the various affect the sun can have, depending on the weather and on the time of day and the suns position.

The filtered sun light on this foggy day has such a soft affect on Jonathan, Kristin and Tyler

Add light...and look how everything comes alive! Brilliant colors and a sparkle in the eyes!

On a spiritual note, consider the word "LIGHT" as representing "CHRIST" or "TRUTH",

and "sun" being synonymous with "Son".

(I don't know how to get rid of the underline??? How did this happen? So now that everything is being underlined, I don't know if I should keep posting or stop?

These two pictures were taken at our favorite "wave skiing" beach, "Old Man's" near San Onofre, California. The brightness of the sun has such a dramatic affect on the look of the photo. Look what happens when you add light!

The Arizona Temple can appear as if it has actually changed colors depending on the time of day and the position of the sun. I love the golden warmth from the sun at the end of the day. And yet there is nothing as cool and calming as the lovely soft white granite as the background for a bride and groom so in love and beginning their life together! These pictures I took of

Megan and Steve are great examples of this light.

Then check out Emily on the wake board! Notice the effect that light has on her!

At the beginning of this post I talked about a photography class assignment. These two black and white pictures of the girls and "Grandma Rogers" are some of the other shots I took for that light assignment. On the pictures of their profiles I had them looking right into the setting sun, (which was really hard to develop) there was just too much light on their faces.

When I took these pictures....I had no idea that it would be only a matter of months before my lovely mother in law would suddenly suffer a heart attack and the sun would set on her life here with us forever. I can not begin to express how thankful I was for this class assignment and to have shot these pictures of the girls with their Grandmother. I have good memories of us gathering together to do my "homework". I am reminded of the willingness that my family always had to be my subjects for my class assignments, to humor me, to stand in the light, or look into the light, or whatever I asked them to do, just to help me with school. Ultimately, isn't any kind of education, enlightenment?

Our lives can be enlightened with so many lessons of light and love if we look for it.

One last picture....I just love the many, many sparkles of light in this picture. This photo was snapped outside our window in Laie, Hawaii after a very rainy day. The rain stopped, the clouds rolled away....and suddenly our view of the world just sparkled...all we needed was a little light.

DAYDREAM word #5

DAYDREAM.....Friday, March 2, 2012, I tore off the page of my day-by-day Mary Engelbreit calendar to discover a darling picture of a girl, very relaxed, sitting outside in a lawn chair while holding a magazine that was titled:"DAYDREAM" a quote below stated "All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. by Samuel Johnson" I knew that "daydream" was my next word to blog about so I took it as my "sign" to open the blog and post again. So here goes.....

How do you talk about the word "daydream" without talking about school? Isn't the classroom the place that "daydreams" happen? I love the painting by Winslow Homer titled "The Country School" (see painting below) because it kind of reminds me of me. I went to college to become a teacher. Between ASU and BYU I took the classes to have a duel major in both special education and elementary ed, thought it would make me a more marketable teacher. But the truth is....I always felt a little like the way this teacher appears in this (cropped) version of this painting....staring off into space with the green grass outside and gentle breeze more appealing than the inside of the classroom. Thus, one of my great "conflicts" of life, that is, wanting to be smart, but not having a whole lot of discipline when it comes to cracking the books and studying. About teaching...I worked in the same elementary school in Scottsdale where I did my "ASU student teaching", in the "cross categorical" resource classroom. I enjoyed it, didn't absolutely love it....the school year ended in June, Jonathan was born in October and I never went back to teaching again....that is, as a paid teacher in a school ;)
Anyway, back to "daydreaming". YES, I was a daydreamer in school and what did I daydream about? What else but being a "STAR" of the theatre!! When I was in 6th grade my big brother took me to the audition of the high school musical production of South Pacific. I was cast as Ngana, Emilie de Becque's daughter. Act 0ne, scene one, the curtains open after the live orchestra had played the fantastic overture by Rogers and Hammerstein and there I am, in the spotlight singing a duet of "Dites-Moi". Thus my theater career had begun! Now, I must
state, that one of the great cultural events of the year, in Roswell, New Mexico, in the early 70's was the Roswell High School musical. The fact that I was fairly dark complected, had long straight dark hair almost to the middle of my back (type casting) and my big brother Mark, was a Senior, with one of the outstanding voices of the choral department, (definite IN) had nothing to do with me getting the part ;) That year and then the next TWO years I was a "middle school" student cast as one of the children in the high school show. I was also cast in Annie Get Your Gun, and Li'l Abner.....ya, those were exciting times for a young girl and I daydreamed in school during those years....A LOT. I loved the stage!

I mentioned above that the High School musical was ONE of the great cultural events in Roswell. The other: Bobbi Alcorn's Academy of Dance annual dance recital. Bobbi Alcorn taught me, or should I say: INSPIRED me to dance. I loved BALLET class. I loved to dance and worked very hard to acquire those first pointe shoes. I could write volumes on the amazing influence that Bobbi Alcorn had on so many young girls....but this blog post is about daydreams, so I'll re-focus. I daydreamed about dancing in a professional ballet. Because of Mrs. Alcorn I did have that opportunity to dance with the El Paso Ballet touring troupe when they came to Roswell to perform "Cinderella", I was a Paige....who walked across the floor ballerina style, such talent!! I still remember seeing the principal dancers backstage and being completely in awe! My favorite dancing reality....dancing on pointe to Tchaikovsky's, "Merry Widow Waltz" from the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" in a velvet emerald green and white tutu, no doubt the highlight of my career! Ahhh - good memories, and great daydreaming material. Disclaimer....neither of these photographs are me, (just gotta love the Internet)

What happens to daydreams? I believe they become a reality IF they become a true goal first. We moved from Roswell, New Mexico to Scottsdale, Arizona when I was a freshman in high school. I attended a school of ballet with a ballet mistress,

who was NOT at all a fan of my horribly flat feet, with absolutely no natural arch at all, the inspiration of an amazing teacher was gone. The pointe shoes were retired after one too many humiliating classes. However, I loved dancing in Coronado High school productions of "West Side Story" and "Oklahoma" both great dancing musicals.... I was never the star.

DAYDREAMS, come and go with the phases of our life....never did I realize that REALITY would bring such incredible joy!! The people in the following pictures bring more happiness to me than I ever even dared to daydream about. If I start writing about watching my own little girls as they danced, or of the excitement I felt as they developed into strong amazing dancers, well, this post would become too lengthy (too late) but who would have ever guessed? Or that true love would not take place on the stage, from memorizing a script, with a live orchestra playing at the right moments, but in the home that Gary and I built, with the music playing over the years from stereo turntables, to cassette tapes, to CD's to the Ipod?? (Okay, so I don't really use my Ipod..... YET)

Just think.....I could have avoided this extremely long post of how many words?? and simply used two words to describe my daydreams....GARY LEE ;)