The Weekly Spark: Original Photography & Reflections

There's no reason I should've seen him. He was the size of a quarter, a baby frog sitting on ninety-degree black asphalt, blending right in. I saw him out of the corner of my eye.

It is amazing how quickly things change. One day you are looking at a late-season landscape, and the next, a sudden shift brings a completely new perspective.

Sometimes the best places to clear your head are the ones tied to good memories. I took this photo at Kathryn Albertson Park in Boise. When my son was young, it was one of our favorite spots to visit—we always just called it "our park".

​I heard that quote recently and it stuck with me. The speaker was a prepper talking about spending a weekend with his daughter, reminding us that the point of preparing is to enjoy right now, not to spend all our time worrying about later.

I couldn't help but think of Nick and all our fishing trips we enjoyed together. One of his greatest talents was reaching into a tackle box full of old lures, knotted line, and mismatched hooks, pulling something together, and making it work. He didn't need the newest rod or the most expensive bait. He just needed to be on the shore with a line in the water. I'd bring my own gear, but most of the time I'd be watching him—taking picture after picture of a kid who was completely in his element. Those photos still bring it all back, years later.

You know that feeling when you leave a project half-done, or even just leave a book open on the table with two chapters left? It’s like walking around with twenty browser tabs open in your mind at once. Even if you’re only looking at one specific screen, you’re still subtly aware of all those other open windows cluttering the background.

I was watching a video the other day and came across a concept that explains exactly why our brains do this. It’s called the Zeigarnik effect.

The story goes back to the 1920s at a busy café. A researcher noticed that the waiters could remember massive, complicated orders perfectly—but only until the bill was paid. The second the transaction was settled, the memory completely vanished from their minds.