This year has been one to remember. Despite the difficulties presented by this year, I was offered respite and solace from pandemic stress by the beauty of my hometown, Salt Lake City. Although I enjoyed, as many of us did, more active outdoor recreation, such as skiing or biking, I want to show appreciation for the greenery and nature right at my doorstep.
Photography helps me examine a subject closely and minutely. As I arrange the image for the best composition and light, I give the subject the attention it deserves. Focus and attention are one way of showing love and gratitude. I decided to photograph nature, as I encounter it on an everyday basis in my hometown, as a way of showing my appreciation for its comforts over this past year and a half. As Robin Wall Kimmer writes in Braiding Sweetgrass, ” It is said that only humans have the capacity for gratitude. This is among our gifts” (115).
Early in the pandemic, I didn’t leave home, except to walk around my neighborhood. As I did so, the new green shoots of early spring or a view across the valley soothed me. Soon after, the satisfaction of planting a garden gave me purpose in a world ground to a halt. As summer dawned, walks on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and tossing a frisbee in the backyard provided relief from the disappointments, sorrows, and fear of an increasingly deadly pandemic.
All through this tough year, the bits of nature right here in our concrete city lifted my spirits. Just lying in a spot of grass in my backyard was indescribably lovely. Not everyone has access to a backyard or proximity to mountain trails, but I learned this year that the gifts of nature can be found in the most unlikely and urban of spaces. “Nature” is not and should not be conceived of by us as limited to the grand view of Delicate Arch or the majestic peaks of the Tetons; nature is with us and surrounds us all day. With this conception, everyone has some access to our world and its grandeur. Nature and its power are everywhere: the cheerful pop of vivid yellow provided by a dandelion growing in a parking strip, in the sprouting and tender basil plant you keep on the windowsill, in the blue sky that heralds each day. This photo project is my humble thank you and an expression of my gratitude for the unsung pleasures that nature has provided to me during this difficult time.