I’ve never been much of a girly girl. Hearts and flowers, or pink and sparkly have never made me very giddy. But while hiking through the woods nearly a year ago I came upon this heart carved into some vivid, limey green, beautiful moss that was growing upon a tree. (Note: as much as I like the word “verdant”, I have to fight back an eye roll at its overuse in both blog posts and home and garden publications, so I am sparing you).
And then, I stumbled upon this heart in another bed of vibrant moss.
Though these two hearts were obviously placed with human intentions, they got me thinking about hearts in nature, or hearts by happenstance in general. Ever since, I have been on a secret quest to discover and capture serendipitous images of hearts.
This newfound curiosity happened to coincide with my child’s then-pending open heart surgery. The surgery weighed heavy on my mind. My heart mission was not an obsession by any means, but I did find myself “looking” for hearts when I normally wouldn't have. This Valentine’s Day I would like to share a few photos from my little scavenger hunt.
The three clouds below caught my attention just a few days before my daughter’s out-of-town surgery. Rather than subject ourselves to the confines of a small hotel room, we rented a house on a lake, and rented a boat, too. One day, we were tooling around the lake and I was stretched out to relax. In just a matter of minutes, I saw three different cloud formations. They re-assured me that things may just turn out okay. (They did).
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I’ve continued to look for hearts, but the more I see, the harder it is for me to find another.
Last fall, I missed a shot from the barriers of a canoe midstream. I glanced up, and for just a moment the convergence of leaves, branches, and sky formed a heart, but by the time I had fished my camera(phone) from its watertight resting place, my travelling perspective had shifted and the opportunity was mostly lost. You have to look really hard, and well, yes, I do think that may be a car seat stuck in that tree. (We were canoeing through a place that had experienced a recent flood).
This heart theme stayed with me and manifested itself in the finite amount of creative time I had in 2014. Here's one that I made for a friend.
Are you looking for a warm fuzzy heart? Keep searching, you’ll find them in the most unexpected places. But the best way to find one? Share yours.
Happy Valentine’s Day and thanks for stopping by,
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