“Celebration” © 2021 JC Buck
Dave Matthews sings “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we'll die” in Tripping Billies.
How many of us have heard this kind of advice? I’ll venture to say that all of us, at some point in our lives, have been told to “live in the now,” “enjoy the moments as they arrive” or “slow down to smell the flowers.” But it’s hard, right? So, so hard. Because we are always jumping from task to task or spending precious mental energy anticipating what’s just around the corner. We increasingly seem to live more of our lives with our gaze fixed on the horizon than on what’s right in front of us.
A social psychologist at Loyola University defined “savoring” as the ability to deliberately take in the pleasures we experience in our lives, moment by moment. He believes that when mastered, “savoring life” gives us the ability to deeply feel, integrate, and appreciate and celebrate the good moments in life.
Like all of us, I try to savor my life as much as possible. For example: I have a silver bell on my desk in my studio. When I make a sale, I ring the bell. Then I fold my hands behind my head, lean back in my chair, smile, and pause. I let the bell echo in the room for a moment while I close my eyes and appreciate how fortunate I am to derive real joy from my work.
But like any skill, savoring and celebrating life takes practice. For every moment I “savor” with my bell, a smile, and a mental high-five to myself….. I skip over hundreds. It’s as if I find it easier to focus on where I’m not instead of where I am, or to think through where I still need to go instead of celebrating the journey that got me here. I’ll ruminate about what is next, dwell on yesterday, and suffer the never-ending fear of what could go wrong. I’ll think about my next photograph, where I will be next month... next, next, tomorrow, tomorrow... it’s exhausting.
But what I know with hardened certainty is that I don’t want to live a life full of “nexts” and “tomorrows.” So like all of us, I need more practice.
Some recent work, unexpectedly, illuminated the idea of celebration and of consciously pausing to savor life.
Lately, I have taken an interest in photographing trees. They are wise and full of lessons. But my focus has been on trees, so the concept of celebration wasn’t on my mind when I was out in the field shooting all the stunning trees of Colorado. But one evening while working in post-production, a particular photograph I’d taken suddenly stood out from the hundreds of tree shots. I recalled capturing it, I recalled spending several minutes working the shot, changing angles, getting closer, but its beauty had a delayed effect on me. It is a close-up composition of a dead dandelion; a stunning example of a life once lived in its disappearing beauty.
The photograph is rich in tones, bright luminous lines of life and mesmerizing patterns that draw you in. It is the type of photograph that grows on me the more I view it. It isn’t immediately recognizable as a dandelion, but with some study the dots begin to connect and the greater picture materializes. I realized I had a lot of these types of photos interspersed throughout my self-directed assignment to photograph trees. They all comprise this month’s collection.
These photographs that I’m releasing this month are captivating fireworks of tonality and shape found among us in nature. I have printed them large, some as big as four by six feet, making a grand statement to any space. The natural forms are explosive with expression, full of life, full of celebration over just being alive and having lived. Because in life, the small achievements, the small moments…they are the moments worthy of big, large-formatted celebration.
Oprah Winfrey has a great quote, she says “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” I couldn’t agree with this sentiment more.
Thank you for taking the time to read through my thoughts this month and checking out my latest work, “Celebration.”
Enjoy!
JC
“People of our time are losing the power of celebration. Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained. Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state-it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle.... Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.”
- Abraham Joshua Heschel
