Notes: One morning this past week I was packing up my car for work… coffee mug, water bottle, backpack, camera bag. I had a meeting to get to. But the windows! I could take a few minutes to get some shots.
Our garage is old, and the windows all have cracks and holes in them. I noticed them before, but with the frost, the window panes became something entirely different.
The frost obscures what’s on the other side, but the hole says, Wait a minute! I’ll give you a peek. The cracks hint, More will soon be revealed.
For the first time in my life, I can tell you at least one thing about every day of the year that just passed. Not because I developed super memory powers, but because of a shopping whim I had in December 2013.
I was Christmas shopping when I spotted this journal, Every Day – a five-year memory book. I remember feeling guilty when I walked out of the shop with something for me, and no gifts for anyone else. Oops.
Today as I flipped through and reviewed the ups and downs, the thoughts and details of 2014, I am so glad I talked myself into it, and stuck with it through the whole year.
Every day isn’t marked by a profound statement or big happening. There are exciting times, and some a-ha moments, for sure. But there are many, many more of the small details, mundane stuff even, that add up to a full life.
Each morning I sit down with this book. I think about what happened the day before. What did I think about? What did I do? Did I notice anything interesting? The mindfulness and reflections this has brought has been such a surprising gift to myself. Not bad for fifteen bucks.
In 20 years, I’ll remember that I moved in 2014. Maybe I’ll recall running the hardest marathon of my life. But the little stuff – I’m always afraid that will fade away, that these will be the things I forget. These tiny moments and details are like the rug that really ties the room together. I love that I have a collection of them, this tidy, micro way to look back on the year.
To much more of the lovely small stuff (and some big things too) in 2015. Happy New Year!
A murmuration is a lovely sight to behold. A whole flock of birds moves as if tied together with strings. Expand, contract. Twist. Turn. As if they’re one organism.
I spotted one this New Year’s day, waiting in traffic on my way home from the movie theater in the mall.
There’s some pretty crazy science behind it all. Something about a system on the verge of change. Seems like a fitting message for the first day of a brand new year.
Oh, the movie I saw? Birdman. The universe has a sense of humor.
World, you move too fast.
Another year, another
flash in the old pan.
For this New Year, please
give me the slomo option
so I can pause, breathe.
I want to be here,
fully present for this sun,
but it’s hard full-speed.
Some days I’ll be fine
to fly with you, world. I’ll just
slomo as needed.
Just sometimes, like now,
which might fly by unnoticed
and then forgotten.
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “Five Seven Five. Write a haiku (or…multiple haiku!) about the past – whether it’s a year ago, a decade ago, or from childhood. If you want to, give some background information about your simple scene. And then – write one that paints a picture of the present, or predicts the future.”
Looking back on 2014, in all that I accomplished at work, at home, I keep thinking of one word:
foundation.
At SmallBox, we focused on our people, process and place. During our winter Factory Week we mapped out our entire creative process, looking for places we might improve. After a year of leasing the old Broad Library, we purchased the building, making it our long-term home base. And we intentionally invested in professional development and career paths for the first time. We didn’t grow a lot, but we’ve prepared ourselves for it in 2015 and beyond by building a really solid foundation.
In my personal life, this year was all about finding the right place to call home. In July, we finally found the one, and have since been working to make it our own. We still have a few boxes left to unpack. Some of the rooms are not the right color. There’s more furniture to buy. But the house has great bones and is the sort of place we could live in until the end of our days. A foundation for a full life.
With some of these major things in place, I can’t help but feel like 2015 could be a wild and wonderful year, with growth at work, time to put toward upping my creative game, and to get back to the travel we put on hold for most of last year.
I haven’t picked a word yet for 2015, and I don’t know if I will. I’d never have chosen foundation as my word for 2014. With hindsight, I can see that was exactly how it all unfolded, and was just what I needed.
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “A Single Word. What one word sums up the past year? Now: unpack, unfold, and uncover it. What does it represent? What events float to the top when you think about your word? And, okay, if you can’t limit yourself to a single word…use a (select) few.”
Years ago when my Twitter world was smaller, I used to post my #firsttune of the day. Not every day, but often. There were a few others scattered around the country who joined in. It was a fun way to discover new music.
Eventually it faded away. Not on purpose. I just lost steam on posting them, similar to how I had dropped off on posting weekly photos (perhaps something to revive with my new 2015 goal). I still post one now and again, for old time’s sake, few and far between.
Here’s the first thing I listened to today. Slow, dreamy, Cohen-esque (only a lady):
What was your #firsttune?
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “Shout At The World. If you could make a # (hashtag) take off…what would it be? What conversation do you want to have with the world? Who are the five people you’d want to hear from first…or last? Is your trending topic personal? Political? Lyrical? Or just random?”
Over the holiday, my mom pulled a small stack of black and white prints from her purse. The photos were a recent find, having been stowed away in a box at my grandma’s for decades.
This image is my mom at four years old with my uncle John and my grandfather, who has been gone for more than twenty years. I’ve heard of their trips to Colorado, but I’ve never seen them.
In this snapshot they were pulled over at a rest stop. My mom says they never ate at restaurants when they were on the road. There weren’t many out west anyway. They packed lunches, ate from the cooler. Sometimes Granddaddy would fish at the stops when there was water nearby, and mom and John would play until it was time to get back in the car.
I turned over the photo as my mom is telling me all of this.
“Plunka?” I asked.
“I didn’t even know that was on there!” She went on to tell me that they called Granddaddy’s old Plymouth Plunka. I’d have never known this small family history without this photo.
This image came to me at a time I’ve been thinking about my 2015 goals. One I’ve been kicking around is to up my photography game. Today I researched classes, one small step toward capturing better images. I want to understand all of these mysterious settings on my camera, the lighting, the technical stuff. I want to be able to capture moments like this one, the kind to unlock lost worlds, stories, feelings.
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “One Small Step. Set your sights on the next year: what’s one step you can take to support a goal you have for 2015? Whether it requires a written plan, a list of supplies or ingredients, or even a flowchart: getting your plan down in words should help spur you into action.”
Once per year for the past six years, SmallBox has built and donated a brand new website to a nonprofit who otherwise wouldn’t have the budget to up their digital presence for 24 Hour Web Project. In recent years, we’ve upped the game by adding things like email templates, editorial calendars, photography or videos.
This year we wanted to help our recipient Indianapolis Neighborhood Resource Center with name recognition. While they do incredible things for Indy, like their Public Allies program and hosting Courageous Conversations, they fly a bit under the radar.
We came up with an awareness and engagement campaign to spread neighborhood love in Indy. We decided to rally conversation around a hashtag, so we named the initiative #heartmyhood. We planned to put the call out for stories and images showing why people love where they live.
While we knew each image and story would be unique, we wanted to create some connection between them. I was tasked with creating a mark. Time was short, so I used a sprint technique to sketch out as many ideas as I could dream up (and fit on one page, which as it turns out was 43 different sketches).
I took the concept sheet around to my project partners, Dan, Lydia and Kasey to see which idea resonated most with them. I dotted the ones that rose to the top, then fired up Illustrator.
The first three concepts were pretty similar:
I thought #3 would be the winner, but I wanted to try something totally different,just to have a more stark counterpoint, so I made concept #4:
When I took the concept back to the team, #3 was indeed the unanimous winner. To account for different situations, I created a few color variations.
And here is the mark added to the very first image submitted to the campaign:
The first photo submission we received was the lovely gate at Garfield Park by Jules Bush.
People sent in submissions from all over the city – Irvington, Herron-Morton, Garfield Park, the West Side and so many more. You can see more of the neighborhood love we got during 24 Hour Web Project here. I even added my own story, claiming the Monon as my ‘hood.
INRC has taken this idea and run with it. For their annual meeting, they made stamps out of the mark, and did some analog story collecting.
They are still collecting stories via their website if you want to submit your own!
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “Show & Tell. Time to show off your handiwork: what did you make this year? Share something personal, like a song or art. What inspired you? Was the finished work what you initially imagined? Or a work project – what was the process? The end result? Share your vision…and your work!”
Some of my favorites scenes from 2014 came when I laced up and hit the trail. My top running snapshots from the year:
My very first run of 2014.
Mile 10 of a 12 mile run on the Monon Trail, accidentally timed perfectly to see the setting sun.
The day I discovered I can run in snow boots.
Running stairs and hills on Butler’s campus. Also, rainbows.After surviving the Flying Pig Marathon.
A 10-miler along Lake Michigan in Chicago.
A sunny autumn run on the Monon.Ho ho ho. Just before running the Santa Hustle Half Marathon.
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “Goin’ Places. What place stood out for you this year? Outdoors or indoors; a huge gathering or a tête-à-tête? Where were you? Who were you with? What feeling did you have when leaving? Were you inspired? Refreshed? Or…confused and glad to be gone? Whether it was exciting…or awkward: give us a hall pass out of our own room for a few minutes.”
I found this heart on a morning walk this fall, carried it back with me. At home, I put it on my bedside table. It stayed with me for a few weeks, a daily reminder of the loveliness in the world.
The leaf lay there, unmoved. I noticed it when I woke up in the morning, and again when I went to bed at night. I kept it there, not knowing why, thinking it might inspire some art. Sometimes we notice things so that we might see something else.
One day, I looked at it and saw the fullness in my own heart. I never made anything else with it, just snapped a photo, then let it go. I am not in the habit of keeping leaves and things at my bedside.
This post is part of Think Kit by SmallBox
Prompt: “What’s Your Tradition? Today we’ll keep it short and sweet. Share a photo from your year that highlights giving, thankfulness, traditions or finding peace. What does the photo represent to you?”
