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It's Time to Fly

By Tineke Ziemer

February 5^th, 2017

for the love of hydrangeas

In the summer, when the hydrangeas were in full bloom, my friend Sherry brought me a huge bouquet. They are my favourite flower. It was truly a delight. They brightened my home day after day until they slowly dried into perfect renditions of their former selves. The dried bouquet spent time in many places in my home over the next couple of months, bringing delicate beauty to each room. I was waiting for something....

One gorgeous October day, they found their purpose. I was working on a photography project with still life subjects and I knew my cup of tea needed a little colour and texture in the background. I ran to my room, filled my arms with hydrangeas and brought them out to my deck, where I had a little still life set up. The evening sun glowing through the petals was the perfect touch.

On an earlier walk around my yard, I had found an abandoned bird's nest, full of debris. I brought it out now and considered how I could capture the essence of freedom a bird has to leave it all behind, to let go and move on to something new, to just... fly! As the sun sank lower in the sky, I filled my arms again with hydrangeas, and I danced. I twirled and laughed and spread out my arms, and delicate petals swirled around me, filling the air with a whirlwind of fluttering confetti. They landed in my hair, on my shoulders, under my bare feet and created a fragile carpet on the rough, worn wood of my deck. I was caught in a moment of utter perfection.

There was one last thing to do. I placed the bird's nest in the center of the blanket of petals and tucked one tiny flower inside. It became the symbol of transformation; of leaving something beautiful behind for something even grander. Later that month, I had the photo printed on cards to give my students as they completed their nine month program with me and stepped out into the next phase of their photographic journey. In tiny letters above the nest I inscribed, "It's time to fly."