Summer Shift

Attention spans are curious things. We work with children to develop attention spans so that they can concentrate on learning, on making commitments, on completing tasks. But if you’re a writer or an artist or some kind of influencer, you are admonished to post on social media daily lest you drop out of everyone’s newsfeed and people forget you exist. Something else nice and shiny will come along to claim everyone’s attention.

This bugs me. Especially in the summer, when all I want is to sink into languid warmth, be still, hang out with my dog or my family. I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend every free minute either posting or looking at social media. I do it enough as it is – enough to feel restless and anxious and realize when I need to step back. 

And this is when I need to step back. Summer is unfurling in all its petaled and leafy glory, the Fourth of July is looming, and the bad news of the world just keeps coming. 

I often go on a blog hiatus in the summer. I’m thinking something different right now, though. I’m thinking about images that feel peaceful and that is something I can offer, something that soothes those ever-shorter attention spans of ours. For the rest of the summer and maybe longer, depending on how I feel, that’s the direction I’m taking One Minnesota Crone. It’ll get my Nikon back in my hands and maybe spread a little peace.

And it’ll focus my attention on what’s in front of me. How very Zen, don’t you think? Enjoy. If some images spark some poetry or a story, even better.