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Joy in the Labor

· November 22, 2011

12 Days of Thanksgiving: DAY 10

I read this poem from the American Life in Poetry project last week and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. I love the phrase “to claim a place in the bounty of earth.” Isn’t that what we really find ourselves about so many times? Claiming a place of bounty for our own hearts and spirits. So often we slip into thinking that bounty falls before us with no effort. That we are simply able to sit before a table amply spread and partake of bounty at no cost. But, as Mr. Levine writes, bounty more often comes through effort — through the conscious and persistent labors of grace in our lives and the staunch belief in our hearts that labor will be rewarded. And the belief that the bounty for which we labor is precious.

I’m reminded today that bounty must be cultivated as we root out the life of meaning that brings us joy. God is so incredibly generous. His provision is ample. But it is my responsibility to maintain that space for His abundance. It is my responsibility to put in the effort to cultivate my own heart, recognizing, claiming, and preserving what is important.

And, as the poem expresses, joy may be found in that labor. Our effort and struggle produces a greater measure of gratitude.

American Life in Poetry: Column 348

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

When we’re on all fours in a garden, planting or weeding, we’re as close to our ancient ancestors as we’re going to get. Here, while he works in the dirt, Richard Levine feels the sacred looking over his shoulder.

Believe This

All morning, doing the hard, root-wrestling
work of turning a yard from the wild
to a gardener’s will, I heard a bird singing
from a hidden, though not distant, perch;
a song of swift, syncopated syllables sounding
like, Can you believe this, believe this, believe?
Can you believe this, believe this, believe?
And all morning, I did believe. All morning,
between break-even bouts with the unwanted,
I wanted to see that bird, and looked up so
I might later recognize it in a guide, and know
and call its name, but even more, I wanted
to join its church. For all morning, and many
a time in my life, I have wondered who, beyond
this plot I work, has called the order of being,
that givers of food are deemed lesser
than are the receivers. All morning,
muscling my will against that of the wild,
to claim a place in the bounty of earth,
seed, root, sun and rain, I offered my labor
as a kind of grace, and gave thanks even
for the aching in my body, which reached
beyond this work and this gift of struggle.

——————————————————-

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright © 2010 by Richard Levine, from his most recent book of poetry, That Country’s Soul, Finishing Line Press, 2010, by permission of Richard Levine and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2011 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Categories : poetry, twelve days

5 Things Small Businesses Can Talk About Online

Posted by haley montgomery

· April 14, 2011

The internet holds a wealth of marketing opportunities, to be sure. For small businesses in particular, marketing through online channels is very attractive because it often requires a lower budget investment compared to the potential return in exposure (and in real leads that produce sales). I hear buzz phrases like “be the media” and “education-based marketing” tossed about a lot, but the thought of producing original content to put online is pretty daunting to most small business owners. However, the process may not be as difficult as you think when you use what you’re already doing.

Small businesses often have a great advantage in the ability to connect with customers just by their very nature. And connecting with clients is what online media is all about — meeting your customers right in their laptops, inboxes or smart phones. Small businesses are usually already trained to give one-on-one personalized attention to customers as well as cater their services to specific customer needs. This more personal approach is simply the way of life in building a small business. And, that approach can provide a head start in developing content for online marketing just by using what you do every day in your relationships with customers. Whether it’s a company blog or an email newsletter or a Facebook profile, here are 5 things small businesses can talk about online.

1. Your Staff — In a small business, customers tend to know your staff by name already. And more importantly, your staff tends to know their customers by name as well. Regardless of where (or who) your market is, I bet a large chunk of your customers would choose to work with someone they know by name rather than some anonymous sales representative. Online media gives the opportunity to expand the base of that personal attention beyond just those who can walk into your storefront. Use your online media channels to help people get to know your staff better. Share well-chosen personal tidbits about those personnel who are often the face of your company to help customers make a stronger connection. Give customers more insight into the personal expert service they can expect by sharing information about your staff’s experience and training.

2. Your Expertise — Sometimes small businesses battle the fallacy that bigger knows more. We all know that’s not necessarily true, and online media offers the opportunity to share the expertise your small business offers. When customers come into your store or business seeking your services, they trust your advice because you can cater it to their specific needs. You can share that same expertise online through tips or suggestions that relate to your services or products. Yes, you may be giving away some free advice, but you will also build trust in your knowledge to serve customer needs.

3. Your Customers — One of the time-honored marketing boosts of small (particularly local) business is the proper use of text message software. Folks talk about your business to their neighbors and friends. Your online media offers that same opportunity, only your network is greatly expanded. With the permission of your customers, share testimonials of their experiences with your company. When you’re working with other businesses, extend public “thank yous” in your online media for their business. This not only gives your online audience a glimpse of the people who already trust your services, but it offers free publicity to your customers as well.

4. Your Calendar — In your small business marketing plan, you probably already target certain times of the year that are significant for marketing your services or products most effectively. You likely plan for special sales, product showcases or events throughout the year to connect with customers or move your inventory. And, you probably develop traditional advertising like printed flyers or newspaper ads to let your customers know about it. Add online media to the mix! Online you don’t have to pay to add color or worry about advertising deadlines. Use your online media channels to get specific about your promotions and share information that may not necessarily fit into your normal column inches. Plus, in the online format, you can offer updates about availability and special discounts that may occur on the spur of the moment, giving your online audience the opportunity to get “inside” information.

5. Your Vendors — Similar to what I mentioned about expertise, sometimes retail customers default to the big “box” stores because they believe they are the best source for the brands they want at the lowest price. Another myth! Small businesses can use online media to dispel that idea by sharing specific information about the brands they carry. Often times, you’ve developed personal relationships with the representatives for the brands and retail lines in your store. Offering customers some of the detailed information they provide not only highlights the benefits of the products, but it establishes your small business as an authority and resource for that particular brand.

Categories : learn

Tags : marketing tips, small business

poetry . Back From The Fields

Posted by haley montgomery

· March 24, 2011

A journey through a pasture is always an adventure. I have some experience in this. The wide open space with grasses of every flavor blowing becomes ripe for imagination regardless of the direction you’re traveling. In Spring and Summer, when the grasses are sharing their wealth and putting out seeds, you can’t help but walk carrying reminders of where you just stepped–little pieces of tomorrow’s blades and stalks stuck to your socks and shoes and pant-legs. You don’t really notice them while you’re in the pasture. The imaginative potential of each step is too overwhelming. The wealth of sensory intake from earth and sky and plants and wind is too distracting. It’s when you get home, that you see what you’ve brought back from the fields. This poem from the American Life in Poetry series talks about that moment. I wanted to share it because I’ve been thinking about journeys lately. In the winding paths of the lives we build, whether grassy fields or arduous hills, we bring the seeds from every step along with us–seeds just waiting to fall off in new places and sprout anew. Seeds waiting to be planted with intention in whatever fertile ground we cultivate. It’s so easy sometimes to overlook the potential of even the winding path, the hopelessly meandering journey or the seemingly wrong turn. But, seeds stick. With seeds, there is always potential.

American Life in Poetry: Column 313
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Go for a walk and part of whatever you walk through rides back on your socks. Here Peter Everwine, a California poet, tells us about the seeds that stick to us, in all their beauty and variety.

Back from the Fields

Until nightfall my son ran in the fields,
looking for God knows what.
Flowers, perhaps. Odd birds on the wing.
Something to fill an empty spot.
Maybe a luminous angel
or a country girl with a secret dark.
He came back empty-handed,
or so I thought.

Now I find them:
thistles, goatheads,
the barbed weeds
all those with hooks or horns
the snaggle-toothed, the grinning ones
those wearing lantern jaws,
old ones in beards, leapers
in silk leggings, the multiple
pocked moons and spiny satellites, all those
with juices and saps
like the fingers of thieves
nation after nation of grasses
that dig in, that burrow, that hug winds
and grab handholds
in whatever lean place.

It’s been a good day.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2004 by Peter Everwine, whose most recent book of poetry is From the Meadow: Selected and New Poems, Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 2004. Poem reprinted from The Place That Inhabits Us, Sixteen Rivers Press, 2010, by permission of Peter Everwine and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2011 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Categories : poetry

Tags : American Life in Poetry, spring, the farm

Color Month: Green

Posted by haley montgomery

· March 17, 2011

There’s no better day to think about the color GREEN than St. Patrick’s Day, of course! From the renewal of spring to the warmth of tropical waters, the color green brings a calming influence to this upsized color month journey and to design color palettes. All colors carry unspoken messages based on cultural influences, historical references and even our own bodies’ physical reactions. Let’s look at what the color green communicates.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS:
Green is one of the most prevalent colors found in nature and offers one of the widest arrays of approachable choices in the spectrum. Because it is linked to so many various shades in nature, multiple tones of green are rarely perceived to “clash” with one another. Abundance in the natural world gives the color a near universal appeal and very strong positive associations. This prevalence allows green to be used almost like a neutral in many color palettes, serving various roles from a grounding undertone to a calming influence to a striking counterpoint.

COLOR VARIATIONS:
The many shades and hues of green offer varying associations that can appeal to nearly any audience. Blue green tones almost always elicit a pleasant response from viewers because they are so closely related to earth and sky. These colors are perceived as clean and cool, but also warm like the tropical waters they evoke. Blue greens are typically very soothing and are flattering to most skin tones. Lighter mint greens are seen as refreshing and easily invoke sweet thoughts of chocolate and the taste of mint leaves. While brighter greens generally connote renewal by embodying spring, fresh grass and leaf buds, deeper greens are often associated with the mysterious silence of deep forests. Both call to mind refreshing scents, but the associations with deeper greens expand to suggest prestige, security and trustworthiness because of their use in American money.

Among the lesser-used greens, bright emerald signifies elegance and is also strongly associated with the Irish heritage. Yellow-greens can be used effectively for projects related to gardening or florals because they resemble new growth. The sharper tone of chartreuse is perceived as trendy and an attention-getter that gives a youthful feel appealing to children and teens. Olive tones can be seen as up-scale but sometimes require stronger colors companions to pull them away from a staid neutral role.

NEGATIVE ASSOCIATIONS:
Among green’s negative associations, it is sometimes used in cultural terminology to represent jealousy, envy or inexperience. In addition, some shades of yellow-green are actually associated with nausea and illness, and create adverse reactions.

Overall, the design possibilities of the color green seem almost as endless as the various shades we see outside our window. It has obvious environmental appeal as well positive concepts like cleanliness, growth and reliability. Personally, I like green’s ability to shift from that reliability right into an added kick of excitement with only a touch of blue or yellow added to the mix. And, of course, you know any small pond dweller has to appreciate a few green frogs. Enjoy wearing green today!

Categories : learn

Tags : color, design in culture, green, neutrals

Color Month: Blue

Posted by haley montgomery

· March 14, 2011

The blue skies of Spring are beginning to take over the gray more consistently where I live. There’s something about a cloudless blue sky that gives me a sense of clarity. Continuing with my bonus color month, what other subtle messages are delivered with the color blue?

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS:
We often perceive the color blue as a constant in our lives because of its association with sky and water, and it serves as the calming agent among the primary colors. From deep navy and bright royal to blended teals and periwinkles, hues in the blue family offer a diverse, but calm, cool and collected palette. Because much of the earth is blue in the form of sky and sea, the color generally inspires confidence and reliability. Blue is appealing to both men and women almost equally, although men often report it as their most preferred color.

Blue almost universally symbolizes reliability, dependability and trustworthiness — hence the term, “true blue.” Physically, there is also evidence that seeing blue triggers the release of a tranquilizing chemical in the brain, producing a physical sensation of rest and calm. Generally, people report greater productivity and less anxiety when working in blue rooms, and exposure to the color has been shown to lower heart rate and body temperature. Therefore, basic blues often promote good mental concentration.

COLOR VARIATIONS:
Navy blue is perhaps the most serious in the color family and the shade most closely associated with power. Generally, darkening a color by moving the hue towards black infuses it with additional power. Thus, navy is synonymous with authority and credibility, but is also more approachable and friendly than straight black. The brightness of brilliant or electric blues shift the color away from more sedate versions. They lend a dynamic and exhilarating tone, and tend to engage the viewer more than calmer, traditional blues. Periwinkle blues have a warmer undertone that emanates from the purple used to mix them and are often seen as more playful and energetic. Teal blues are associated with a more upscale look, indicating rich and unique qualities. This version of blue is the least gender-specific and equally appeals to both men and women. Turquoise blue was named the color of the year in 2010 by Pantone, the company responsible for the print-industry standard color matching system. The color of the year represents the most prominent color trend viewed across multiple design disciplines where color palettes most effect marketing or merchandising success. Pantone describes the color as an “inviting, luminous hue inspiring thoughts of soothing, tropical waters.”

NEGATIVE ASSOCIATIONS:
Although shades of blue have universal appeal because of their association with Earth’s core water elements, it does have negative associations when applied to food. There are only a handful of blue tones present in food found in nature, and the color tends to create an appetite aversion.

Are you looking at blue skies today?

Categories : learn

Tags : blue, color, design in culture

Hello & welcome! I’m Haley Montgomery, and I’m the designer and owner of Small Pond Graphics. I sometimes fancy myself a frog kisser— a documentarian coaxing poignant moments from unexpected places. This blog has evolved from those moments.

The small Pond FIELD GUIDE is part diary, part sketchbook, and part wish list – an archive of ordinary wonders. For years, this space has housed my stories – creative ideas, vintage inspiration, our forays into curious places, and the simple artifacts of quiet of conscious living. Through watercolor, photography, and illustrated tales, these pages uncover the blessing of ordinary days and the wonder found in authentic places and pursuits.

I invite you to open the boxes.
Peek into the drawers.
Rustle through the pages.
I’m honored to have you here.