why










Cloudy Sky 12.13.08


Silver Sunflower 12.12.08


Green Car 12.11.08


Frosty Morning 12.10.08


Ducks in flight 12.09.08


Moonlit night 12.08.08



Rusty Fence 12.07.08


During the course of this project, I have had the opportunity to observe many things, some leave me in awe, some make me dream, some leave me filled with happiness and some make me wonder.

I was watching some children recently and I was so impressed with how full of kindness, joy and love children are.

Children tell each other how beautiful they look, without feeling like if they compliment each other they are taking from themselves.

Children show each other kindness with something as simple as holding each others hand, and it does not mean anything more than “you are nice, I like you”.

Children accept each others differences and do not think anything of them, they accept that they are not all alike, that they are different shapes, sizes, have different backgrounds, feelings and beliefs and they still all manage to get along. Sometimes we adults do not accept differences, we have issues if someone thinks something different than us, feels something different than us, believes different than us, looks different than us, acts different than us…. is different than us.

Why? I wish I knew why.

Are we not told to celebrate our differences?

Do we not know that everyone has their own path in life and no two people are the same?

Why do we take offense when someone asks us to do something differently?

Or for that matter when they just plain do something differently than us, why do we get peeved, perturbed or put out at each others differences?

Would it not be horrible if everyone was exactly the same?

What would we ever learn?

Why do we have to make odd awkward moments to recognize their differences, highlighting them in a strange way, when we could just be grateful in that moment for those differences?

Acceptance gives us a chance to display our own inner grace and our thankfulness that we do have variety in our lives, that we are not all exactly a carbon copy of each other.

I will probably always question why our differences affect us the way they do, I know at times I even find myself stuck doing some of the same things I am questioning here. But I am working on that.

But in the meantime, perhaps I can encourage all of us to keep in mind the words of Stacey Charter.

“There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:
This is me!
I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love!
I am a whole complex package.
Take me... or leave me. Accept me - or walk away!
Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mold.
If I need to change, I alone will make that decision."


-Stacey Charter (adapted)


Have a great and wonderful week.

-Monique Jervan-Chilton

PS - The artwork that I photographed this week can be found at Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa, they have a great exhibit on the winery grounds, so go have some wine and take in some art.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You have a gift . . . you can see. Beauty doesn't exist until someone sees it.