unanticipated benefits

the COVID experience

Next Friday is the Timely Topic discussion of Israel with Adam Oler of the National War College. As you know, it is most timely with the current round of violence sadly reverberating. 19 May at 1200-1300 eastern with the link available in the Notes section. We will have time for questions and answers, of course. Please feel free to offer the opportunity to your friends and colleagues.

It is absolutely soggy in the Chesapeake this afternoon which is fine since we are still at less than half the average amount of rainfall to this date in 2023. The forecasters were correct predicting the rain today in preparation for what ought be a beautiful day here to celebrate mothers tomorrow. Thank you to each and every mother for what she does every day.

It was rewarding when I trekked down the hall a little before 0500 this morning as it was not raining hard. People are amazed I still get up so early but I have always been and likely always will be an early riser. Today I wasn’t sure what I would see because of the forecast but it was quite pretty.

At this point in life, however, I remain genuinely intrigued each and every morning about the sunrise and other interesting shots. I have not been a lifelong photographer; I had had a nice camera but was too lazy to do all the thinking for producing much. I actually once was asked to take photographs at my best friend’s wedding but it was an unmitigated disaster since I did not do the work to produce photographs. They were horrible.

I received an incredibly shocking and generous gift for one of those birthdays six years back. My brother is a semi-professional so he knows stuff. He said he figured as I got closer to retirement I would perhaps be up for trying photography as a serious hobby.

I enjoyed the new camera and two zoom lenses before relocating to this glorious place in mid-2019. But COVID changed my life with that camera. The National War College went virtual on 19 March 2020. I was still working, just without that obnoxious departure, when I realised within a couple of days that I could see a pretty sunrise every single day. Geez, I had never done that except perhaps on vacation but on holiday I didn’t always have a nice camera or a view so this was pretty amazing here in Annapolis. So, instead of sleeping in for that extra time I wasn’t commuting, I got up to greet the light as it appeared earlier daily in late March, April, and May.

Harry the Cat went outside with me onto the balcony every morning so we had our little ritual. He would sit whining about the door being closed while I gathered the camera and some coffee, perhaps a sweater or jacket, to go out. It was magnificent.

And each and every morning’s show was completely different. I can’t say each was better than the day before but it definitely was varied. I was fascinated that I was seeing this change every day. It was a level of appreciation I had never considered. I wondered if others saw quite the differences I saw each morning

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I cautiously started posting my humble sunrises on facebook once in a while. I figured it was a guarantee I would be up for my 7 a.m. meetings if I aimed for the sunrise. But I was worried they would seem weird sharing the shots. I gradually began culling through the photos a bit.

Turned out people wanted to see sunrises. The comments I got shocked me. I was truly amazed when I realised people who I respect so much noted they enjoyed the photos, moving into expected the photos.

By May, people told me they were watching for my daily photos. It was a way to think about something other than that bloody pandemic. My efforts were definitely amateur, but also creative and satisfying, and perfectly legal. And I wasn’t introducing any danger to me or to my husband because it was me and the cat (only Harry as Eleanor has this habit of thinking soil in the balcony plants has another use so she is banned from exiting the condo).

Some of the photos sucked, undoubtedly, but I sure did not share all of them. I also gradually realised I was sharing this place I was coming to love so much. Spa Creek dumps into the Severn River just out of my view from the balcony so it offered some mystery of a distant place I couldn’t travel to under COVID conditions at that point. We needed the mystery as the known unknowns of the spring into summer of 2020 were infuriating.

As spring passed, flowers arrived. Oh, my, the colours! Those colours revived my spirits so dramatically. I planted a couple of hanging baskets with petunias but they had to be a certain brightness. I also walked all over Eastport gasping at the beautiful lawns people had time to manage that spring because we couldn’t get away from them. It was truly spectacular. I also discovered macro shots where the textures were clear.

My sunrises remain, three plus years later, the message I share with so many people because the sunrises are hope for another day to grace this world, of course. I also have come to appreciate the annual rhythm of flowers. I fear it drives my husband nuts when I cannot ignore something that catches my eye—and that is almost everything (although I am not a fan of yellows or oranges) but he is so supportive and now used to hearing me say ‘Go ahead, I’ll catch up’.

I retired 11 months ago tomorrow , surrendering my required 0400 blast off into the Washington traffic. As a result, I thankfully have enthusiasm for new foci such as ActionsCreateConsequences and photography. I still get up pretty much every morning, eager to see the light. Later in the day, I cannot wait to walk around various parts of town (you’ll recall I went to the Academy Thursday where I generally photographed buildings and memorials) to see what I find. Sailboats are magnificent but so are fences sometimes. It’s intoxicating, simply magnificent to look at this world, capturing some moment which I can keep or discard. I am only beginning to do much editing but I tend to like recording exactly what I see rather than trying to create perfection stylistically.

The pandemic formally ended just this week. Tragically, millions of people suffered and none of our lives will be the same. Those of us who survived will never again assume we can be completely carefree about our behaviour, whether we think masks are still important or were an overreaction. COVID showed us that nature gets a vote on many things.

I benefitted from COVID’s restrictions in ways I never anticipated by developing what is now a passion, if not an obsession.Please do not misunderstand: I would never wish the past three years on us again. But, I am looking at marketing some of my photographs, at the urging of several folks and the help of one of you reading this, so see if they are of interest to people who want to buy a greeting card portraying Annapolis’s beauty. It certainly is a long shot that people will find them interesting but it is a new challenge I want to try. I don’t want to abhor new challenges as I find them important for retaining my sanity. Without COVID’s constraints, however, I doubt it would have happened in any shape or form

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I know I might do well to sleep in rather than arise by 5. As the sunrises pass, perhaps I will decide they are less individually unique than they appear right now. Don’t know as I didn’t know three and a half years ago how much I would enjoy photographing sunrises or flowers or sailboats. Then again, isn’t that what life is about—unanticipated turns in our lives preventing us from getting stale? I am so lucky I have the options and thankful I took the risk of sharing something with others. It’s still really nerve-wrecking but exhilarating most of the time. Life is good.FIN