Project 365 - Day 7

We must remain as close to the flowers, the grass, and the butterflies as the child is who is not yet so much taller than they are. We adults, on the other hand, have outgrown them and have to lower ourselves to stoop down to them. It seems to me that the grass hates us when we confess our love for it. Whoever would partake of all good things must understand how to be small at times. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Eli is the most amazing critter finder. Sometimes it would be like his vision was magnified because I couldn't fathom how he saw that bug or that frog from that far away. He is always coming in with some sort of critter he has caught. I use to always say it was just because he is short and closer to the ground (I know, I'm short, too.) He is 100% boy.
From him and by getting up close and personal with nature I am learning how to be small. Sometimes it is like I see with new eyes... The grass is greener and the sky is bluer and bugs don't scare me. This little spider might have been 5mm. It is just a tiny thing. All it took for me to see it was to take the time to be small, to stoop down to it. I have also realized that there is looking, and there is seeing. I always looked before but I never took the time to really SEE. And for me to be able to see, I had to feel. Feeling is easy. I feel every picture I take because I love to do it. It's not only that I love doing, I love what it's done to me. Seeing takes practice. The more I practice and see, the more I appreciate. The more I practice and appreciate, the happier I am. So in that aspect, it's better for everyone ;). My husband made the remark, "I could take the exact same picture, with the exact same camera and yours would be so much better than mine." See, he doesn't understand about seeing and feeling. I think a photo is only as good as the heart, the passion, that you put into it. You see it returned to you in your photograph.
I have not deluded myself into thinking that I am some sort of great photographer or that I ever will be. I am not afflicted with any kind of false modesty. My photographs will probably never change anybody life by seeing them. But they have changed mine. Because now, I see.