My Blue Heaven

When I was a little girl, I used to lie on the green grass in the summertime and look up at the blue sky.

Wednesday was another in a string of perfect June days, like early summer days you might remember from childhood. And so on my way to a meeting on Wednesday in early afternoon, I stopped amid a stand of trees at the Arboretum and looked up.

The sky was perfectly blue and the weather was enchanting. Warm in the sun, cooler in the shade. Just perfect. I had a few minutes to spare, so I decided to lie down on the ground and snap a few photos of the sky.

(This is why I try not to dress too girly, folks. Tomboy that I am, I can often be found lying or crawling on the ground to take pictures . . . Yes, pretty much each and every day . . . )

Anyway, this was my view, looking up. Perfect blue, with rings of light emanating from the mid-day sun. In those few stolen moments, I felt happy . . . perfectly content, like a child again.

I took many, many other photos on this day. To hear about all the beautiful things I saw and photographed just might break your heart. It almost broke mine (but in a good way). And though the choice was a tough one, this sunny blue-sky slice of childhood happiness was my favorite shot of the day.

I know all of you blippers are photographers too, and so you probably have some of the same feelings I have about the impermanence of beautiful things, about the need to "capture" them.

To hold them in our hands. To put them here, so that we do not let what is beautiful disappear so easily from our grasp. We photographers, we fight back against the passage of time, against the loss of that which we love. We are the heroes of now-ness.

And so I hereby capture this moment of clear-blue-sky, lying-in-the-green-grass happiness, and I put it in this space for all of us to keep. If your spirit is ever in desperate need of blue sky . . . please come by and enjoy a bit of it. I know I will, and I believe there is plenty here for all of us to share.

The song for this photo: you guessed it before you got this far, didn't you? My Blue Heaven was a song written by Walter Donaldson, with lyrics by George A. Whiting. It was recorded by many, including Frank Sinatra and Fats Domino. The version I've picked to accompany this photo is sung by Norah Jones.

When whippoorwills call, evenin' is nigh,
I hurry to my blue heaven.
Just turn to the right, find a little white light
Will lead you to my blue heaven . . .

By the way, there is also a 1990 movie called My Blue Heaven, starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin. Rick Moranis is an uptight FBI agent assigned to protect mafioso-turned-informant Steve Martin, "a larger-than-life mobster with a heart of gold."

Oh, but they take a break from all of that . . . to dance the merengue! So, just for fun, I'm also including the merengue scene from the film My Blue Heaven. Dancing begins at about 1:00. Enjoy!