A Pleasant Surprise

Photo by Maria Banghart

Due to lack of participation, I was on the verge of stopping this blog from making the spurious claim of being a Salon des Arts when I received, for no particular reason, an email that contained some beautiful photographs taken by a friend of mine. Windfall. It got me to thinking about the people that pop unexpectedly into our lives, like a pleasant surprise. My friend, the aforementioned photographer and artiste, Maria Banghart, is one of those pleasant surprises.

I am not a person who actively seeks friendships. Perhaps that is what makes me so appreciative of those I find along the way. I met Maria seven years ago when my youngest daughter and her son entered kindergarten together. Both moms tacitly concerned over the experience level of a first year teacher, we hovered in the background of the classroom on the pretext of volunteering. Since then, we have shared countless volunteering opportunities from Chinese New Year Parades to teaching Art Appreciation classes to fourth graders together. (And when I say “teaching together” I mean: Maria did all the prep work and teaching and I provided crowd control)

During innumerable events and in the spaces in between, Maria has been a faithful chronicler of our children’s lives. I never really had to worry about bringing a camera because I knew Maria would not only have a camera but she would take the most beautifully composed pictures that would inevitably capture the essence of the moment. And the cherry on that little sundae was that she would email copies of these photos to me, completely unsolicited. What a gift.

Our children have parted ways to different schools so we get to see each other less and less despite our being neighbors of less than a quarter mile’s distance. Our lives are indeed driven by our children’s activities so, except for an occasional walk in the morning, I rarely see Maria. And still, like her pictures that show up unannounced in my inbox, she has been and remains, a pleasant surprise.