My love of family history has caused me to look at many things differently. I find myself looking for ways to record events that seem commonplace which are actually very symbolic. When Clara, Lydia and George came to visit I had the perfect chance to try it again. My favorite place for photographs of faces is in my little living room with large, north-facing windows. I pull the blinds up to the top so that there are no stripes on the children and position them facing slightly toward the light. Clara is sitting in my small, wooden, rocking chair and Lydia is kneeling beside her. Clara is reading from the scriptures. The scriptures are the first symbol. These children have parents who have taught them from a young age to read the scriptures. Clara rarely stumbles on a word. The pearls are Clara’s favorite. She always “borrows” them from me when she visits. Pearls of Great Price. That is what these children are.
It is Sunday morning. The children are ready for church. I made the headbands so they are special to me. They are clusters of tiny, felt flowers with pearls in each blossom. I was glad they liked them.
They live in a time where they are free and clean and have food in their stomachs. Perhaps we will look back someday and wish for things as they are in these photographs. Until then, I will keep my eyes open for opportunities to tell stories in pictures. When I am gone, I hope they will enjoy them.
A Light Exists in Spring
-Emily Dickinson-
A light exists in Spring, not present on the year
At any other period when March is scarcely here.
A color stands abroad on solitary fields
That science cannot overtake but human nature feels.
It waits upon the lawn, it shows the furthest tree
Upon the furthest slope you know it almost speaks to you.
Then as horizons step or noons report away,
Without the formula of sound it passes and we stay.
A quality of loss, affecting our content,
As trade had suddenly encroached upon a Sacrament.
This wonderful illustration is from
Eliza’s Field of Faith
by Castor and Leavitt