ordinary january 25, 26, 27 /February 8, 2014 by Carey

Ordinary life in January. I love them so much.

I french braided her hair for basketball that morning, and for a gymnastics birthday party (that was cancelled due to snow) that afternoon. It was so cute.

She decided that she MUST make a crown with hearts and diamonds. It was really quite remarkable. She's something else.

I shot these with my Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm f1.8
Nikon 50mm 1.4D
Sigma 30mm f1.4

"Only miracle is plain; it is the ordinary that groans with the unutterable weight of glory."
-Robert Farrar Capon

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart,
O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

I'm a sensitive introvert who finds such beauty in the ordinary, everyday moments in life. I seek light. I'm mesmerized by it. I photograph and share my images in the hopes that you can also be blessed by the beauty I find around me.

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1SE 2016 - One Second Everyday year 2

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stories 2017 - week 1

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a year of stories - 36 of 52

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Here is that magical pink tree 11 days ago, before the monsoon days created that gorgeous blanketed path

There's conditioning in baseball, too. (I found myself a puddle!!!)

Wouldn't it be amazing to have one of these trees that makes this kind of a path?

She will be 10 in two months and still loves playgrounds. At the baseball tournament weekend before last she begged me to get on the equipment with her, too. Innocence, can you please continue to stay awhile?

She got the unicorn for Easter but we didn't blow it up until Sunday. Hugo is terrified of it and has spent the last 3 days barking at it.

The Lady has not been enjoying piano this year. At all. Which stinks. But is partially my fault. My coaching the STRIDE running team has stretched my time resources to breaking points. We are running during the time we used to be side by side practicing piano. So this last year they've been in their own. I had to be making dinner or helping the other with homework or something else equally time consuming and I've not been able to give them the attention they needed to succeed like they have the first two years we lived here. She has suffered greatly, and now hates the piano which breaks my heart. I'm choosing to use this as an exercise in perseverance and resilience, that we do hard things, that beauty comes after hard work and try, try, trying again. They both seem to think they are failing when they don't finish a piece in one or two sittings. I keep insisting that what they are doing is perfectly right. This is the work of leaning music. You train your fingers. Over and over again. You make mistakes and you try it once more. And another time. Slowly but surely you absorb the piece until it becomes part of you. Maybe one day they will believe me when I say what they are doing is exactly the right process. For now, learning music isn't something I find negotiable. Maybe one day that will prove to be a parenting mistake with her. I don't know. But you don't come across many folks who say "I'm so mad at my parents for making me learn to play the piano." But to tie into this photo, one day recently in an effort to stall and waste time during her 30 minutes of practice she looked up at the art above the pano and said, astonished, "momma! Are those pictures OF something!?" She knows The Little Prince but she's only recently discovered The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. (In fact, her new piano piece is Concerning Hobbits, and my heart is exploding!) so I pointed out Bilbo and Gandalf, the members of the Fellowship. You could see it all dawning on her face. She's looked at these for almost three years and had no clue.

How fun is this? I was thinking I wanted to get a video of her drawing for one of my one seconds for 1se and I wondered how time lapse worked. Apparently perfect for this. I don't know if I'll use it for my 1SE but it's fun to have regardless.

Is this not the best picture of my grandad? Nearly 20 years before I was born!

Virginia's sunset on Saint Patrick's day. I love the colors she gives us

My Last 5 Favorite Writings

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Jul 24, 2017

Wonder, Lost, Whimsy, and Rest: Photography as Reverie

Jul 24, 2017

May 17, 2016

Coffee, Conviction, and Taking Your Time

May 17, 2016

I know better. I know better. I know better.

The whole morning was ‘off.’ I slept too late. I took the dogs out too late. I had to wait forever for the puppy to poop. I woke the kids late. I got The Lady in the shower late. I started cooking breakfast late. They started eating breakfast late. Then I spent their entire breakfast time looking for the cup of coffee that I’d poured before putting The Lady in the shower. I couldn’t find it anywhere.

May 17, 2016

Apr 12, 2016

a year of stories - Kindness - 14 of 52

Apr 12, 2016

With my voice dripping of ridicule, I declared, "What an idiot!"

My Little Lady immediately gasped. "Momma! You shouldn't say that!"

"What a foolish, foolish thing to do!" I justified. What person in their right mind would do something like that!?

"But Momma, that isn't nice!"

A little bit later I lay next to her tiny form in her bed, snuggled in close, ready to sing her a song. "My stomach hurts."

Apr 12, 2016

Feb 29, 2016

a year of stories - fire - 8 of 52

Feb 29, 2016

The whole time I didn't know what to say. The whole time I didn't know whether this was happening for HER or for ME. Was I supposed to DO something with this? Or was I just supposed to be there, to be a calm presence, to listen? Was God trying to speak to my own heart through her words and her wounds? I felt almost panicked, not having time to think through all the options and what the one very right thing to do could be. I wish I could say I chose out of wisdom, but that's not true. I chose out of exasperation. I just tried to listen. To affirm her. To tell her I was sorry. So very sorry that it happened to her and she'd had to live through that.

"They say a burned child fears fire. That's the truth." she said.

Feb 29, 2016

Jan 18, 2016

Meanness, Innocence, and Defense

Jan 18, 2016

I saw it the moment she walked in the door that Friday evening. Something was wrong. Not her normal 'I didn't get my way' kind of wrong but a deep, consequential wrong. In a millisecond I had time to think a thousand year's worth of thoughts.

I had forgotten.

Jan 18, 2016

Carey Pace

photographer & blogger

ordinary january 25, 26, 27 /February 8, 2014 by Carey

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My Last 5 Favorite Writings