I Love Appreciating Life Journal

My art for appreciating life

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Prickly pear bloom photograph on an appreciation journal cover.

“I love appreciating life!”

As a photographer, it's easy to prove the above statement. Almost every photo I capture could be deemed as something that I have an appreciation for. I appreciate the red rust on a sheet of steel blue metal as easily as I am awe stricken by an Hawaiian sunset. So, I wondered, how I could could artistically prove these statements.

ON a journal + IN a journal.

Hmm? Well, one way would be to do a appreciation journal series. That would cover the writing about it — the IN part. But, how would I handle the ON part of the journal? Finding photos that I love would be no problem for the series covers, however, coming up with a title or header to encapsulate the series’ concept was another thing, especially when the words love and appreciating are so similar in nature. But like usual, after playing around with the words, I finally came up with a phrase — I Love Appreciating Life Journal. And the best part, as it turned out, was that this phrase had three different perceptions embedded within it. See below:

1. I Love Appreciating Life Journal
2. I Love Life - Appreciating Journal
3. I Love Appreciating - Life Journal

They all work in my opinion. As you can see, it’s only a matter of where you want to lay the emphasis.

In the end, I picked the middle one (#2). And below are the final journal cover results. Plus, I wrote a little snippet to show how much appreciation I do have for the little things, the big things — All things.

I love that I can go hiking on Cypress Mountain and come across tall, green, wild grass swaying in a gentle breeze, it actually appears like they’re waving a hello to me.

I love that when I look at the back of a pink summer Dahlia I can see that the base holding the flower up looks like a flower in its own right.

I love that I can go for a walk with the expectation to only find a landscape photo, but instead have an eagle land on a tree branch right in front me unexpectedly.

I love road trips that end with a sunset. Taken after a fantastic weekend in Sedona, AZ.

I love that when the going seems all downhill, that just ahead there’s always an upward slope.

I love that when we sail, we purposely long for moments when we have no choice but to feel our way.

I love that I can come across a bamboo forest in the middle of a city.

I love that a fallen log near a river bank can become an instant support for a little, wild, white daisy flower that also has fallen.

I love that when pipes are seamed together, the end result can look so riveting.

I love how warm my bare feet felt against the black volcanic rocks that were paving a garden path in Hilo, Hawaii.

I love how transparent a spring Hyacinth’s pink petals can be just after they bloom.

I love knowing that when a pinecone was sitting on its home-base, before it decided to fall to the ground, it was actually sitting on what looks to be a beautiful green flower.