Introducing Photo-synthesis

Why flower photos will be featured on The Silent Sod

Resolutions

A couple weeks ago a relatively new friend asked me if I had any New Year’s resolutions. I appreciated the question because it was a nice way to get to know each other better and we discovered we both want to see more films.

I print out my New Year’s resolutions every year and keep them in a photo frame on my desk. The first year I did this, in 2015, my resolutions were mostly related to what I would do: blog three times a week, improv comedy once a week, storytelling once a month, draft a novel and revise two more. The only thing I listed that I would stop doing was feeling guilty about not making dinner. I’m pretty sure the only resolution I came close to achieving was performing improv weekly.

Over the years, I have moved away from resolutions that are to-do’s, which I’ll either achieve or I won’t, and towards intentions, habits, and themes. For instance, in 2018, when I was in a period of transition, I listed this as a resolution: “don’t hide information from myself, especially hard truths.”

This year I set intentions to share my writing more regularly in public and to showcase my floral photography. I set up this Substack to help me achieve the first aim, but I didn’t think it would be a venue for the second.

A Poem

Then, a search for the phrase “silent sod” revealed The Crocuses, a poem written by Frances Ellen Watkins. Here’s an excerpt (they refers to the crocuses, snow-drops are another type of flower):

While the snow-drops still were sleeping
    Beneath the silent sod;
They felt their new life pulsing
    Within the dark, cold clod.

The silent sod is not only where the dead are interred, but it is also a place where new life forms. I’ll celebrate this here (and work toward my New Year’s resolution) by sharing a floral photo once a week. You can find these posts under the section labeled Photo-synthesis.

This week’s flower

A crocus (of course).

What’s your favorite spring bloom? Let me know, and I’ll search my collection.

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