The beauty of ordinary things.

It is a big, beautiful world out there and, here in lockdown, I began missing that world big time today. 

It has been almost three weeks since our state of Illinois issued a stay-at-home order to control the pandemic.

Missing the world beyond has led to an interesting conundrum here at home (which is why I still have not done my taxes).

“I said to the apple tree, speak to me of beauty. And the apple tree blossomed,” wrote Rollo May. Missing that beautiful world beyond, I had to ask, “Where is beauty?”

That day, I began taking pictures of the things right in front of me: eggs, closet shelves, books, yarn, pencils, papers, a refrigerator shelf.

It was the vista of a shelter-in-place life. An ordinary life. I was photographing things that I looked at every day but rarely saw.

Some of it was mundane. But much of it wasn’t.

Through the camera’s lens, I began to see my everyday world a little differently. So much of what I’ve seen (or not seen) every day was freshly beautiful.

This has been a joyful exercise and I invite you to try it if you, like me, are missing that big, beautiful world out there.