Today Seemed So Far Away
I remember this day so well. We’d taken a hike down by the river, the boys and I. They ambled along in their own imaginations, playing, hunting, exploring, bundled up against the January cold in their LL Bean snow gear. I’d taken my camera along, as I always did back then, when I was learning photography by doing - hundreds of photos, if not thousands, snapped with my first Canon DSLR. I didn’t plan much about how or when or where I would take photos, I just had my camera in hand and I took them. Most of them were not worth keeping. But every once in a while, things lined up in a way I wouldn’t have even known to line them up, I clicked the shutter, and exquisite expressions, moods, and moments were saved forever.
Like this one.
I remember being intrigued by the old gate with its peeling white paint. Perhaps it would make a good backdrop for a family photo one day, I thought. I asked the boys to go stand over there so I could have bodies in the frame, so I could see if the reality was the same as the idea. You don’t have to smile or anything, guys, just go stand there for a minute, I’d said. And in that minute, one of my favorite photos of all time was born. I love that their positions and gaze are random. I love that I captured them through the grasses. I love that they aren’t smiling.
It’s all going by so fast. Too fast.
Our youngest, who was only six years old the day of this photo, is now two short months from graduating high school. The last month has been a beautiful, heart-wrenching blur of his last basketball season. (Yes, I was the mama in the stands, shaking with sobs during his last game.) Our oldest texted me yesterday and said he’s working on his final semester project in film school, something that involves his life-long love of Bigfoot. After that, he’ll be off to work for the Forest Service on a trail crew in the Gallatin National Forest for the summer. Our middle son, a licensed insurance agent, is meeting weekly with business owners and company executives, planning ways to offer insurance coverage to their employees - somehow, not one lick intimidated by the fact that he’s just twenty years old.
Twelve years and two months since I snapped this photo. Today seemed so far away.