The Years Keep Spinning By

Above, detail from the Shaver family Thanksgiving New Year’s card. (Photo by John Schuchman.)

Check out the blog post below for the inspiration and design of our card, the card that makes me feel a little bit melancholy.

It took a long time to get around to making our holiday card this year. I had fully intended to make cards in time for Thanksgiving — I had that great family picture that John had taken of us near the top of Lincoln Peak in Vermont in September. I loved that picture, and thought it would be a sweet surprise for my friends and family to get a “thankful for…” card in time for Thanksgiving. I made that plan standing on the mountain that day.

Man, don’t you hate it how life sometimes gets in the way of what might have been a really great plan?

October is a crazy month — Greg’s birthday, our anniversary, Mike’s birthday, Brad’s birthday, Halloween, plus all the regular busy-ness of the early part of the school year, and lots of fall shoots too. There was no way I was getting that card done in time for Thanksgiving. I gave up the “thankful for” card plan.

So, as time went by, and reality set in that I wouldn’t be getting the Thanksgiving card done, I decided that a New Year’s card would be just fine. I mean, what’s the harm? People are used to that from me.

And then one day after Christmas, Mike sent me the lyrics to a Joni Mitchell song, saying that he couldn’t believe how quickly his children have grown from little ones riding the carousel to big ones, one of them taller than even him.

And I, because I’m a girl, started to cry.

Here are the lyrics to the song he sent me, Circle Game, by Joni Mitchell

Yesterday, a child came out to wander,
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar,
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star

And the seasons they go round and round,
And the painted ponies go up and down,
We’re captive on the carousel of time,
We can’t return, we can only look behind
From where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the cirle game.

Then, the child moved ten times ’round the seasons,
Skated over ten clear frozen streams,
Words like, “When you’re older,” must appease him,
And promises of “someday” make his dreams.

And the seasons they go round and round,
And the painted ponies go up and down,
We’re captive on the carousel of time,
We can’t return, we can only look behind
From where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the cirle game.

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now,
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town,
And they tell him, “Take your time. It won’t be long now.
‘Til you drag your feet to slow the circles down.”

And the seasons they go round and round,
And the painted ponies go up and down,
We’re captive on the carousel of time,
We can’t return, we can only look behind
From where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the cirle game.

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty,
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true,
There’ll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty,
Before the last revolving year is through.

And the seasons they go round and round,
And the painted ponies go up and down,
We’re captive on the carousel of time,
We can’t return, we can only look behind
From where we came,
And go round and round and round
In the cirle game.
And go round and round and round in the circle game.

I was touched my Mike’s sentimentality. He’s not the type to cry at Hallmark commercials like I am. I thought it was really sweet that he sent me those lyrics. And all of a sudden I knew exactly what our card had to be.

Not sure if it’s obvious yet, but the saying on the front of the card, “The years keep spinning by,” was inspired by the song, “The Circle Game.” It reminds me of the nature of time, how it keeps spinning like a carousel. No matter what you do, you can’t really jump off.

The montage in the inside spread is a visual representation of “the circle game,” showing many aspects of our lives and some of my favorite memories from the past year, which, in all fairness, could be just about any year except for the fact that the kids are the size they are, hence, the words, “We should have tied bricks to their heads.”

Mike wasn’t sure everyone would understand what that phrase meant, but I purposefully didn’t finish the thought, hoping that people who got the card would linger for a moment, and notice how tall the boys are now, and more than that, that they’d reflect on their lives, and how families grow and change.

If you’ve been following City of Nouns since I first started writing my quotes and thoughts when Brad was 2, you would have heard me say more than once, “I should have tied a brick to his head.” When I was growing up in South Carolina, this was a common saying by parents and grandparents — if they could put something heavy on top of our heads, maybe we’d stay little a little bit longer — they’d say to me, while pinching my cute little cheeks, “tie a brick to her head,” — and it wasn’t long before I heard myself saying that to my own first born. Little good it did me. At 15, the kid’s 6-foot-3 now. And the “little one?” HA! He’s in 3rd grade and just a hair shorter than I am. (Update to the picture above: He’s grown almost 2 inches since December. Can you *believe* that?) UGH!

I was so happy that John took our picture at the top of that mountain in Vermont. We had such a good time that week on vacation with him and his family. I will always remember our time there, great times with friends, and some great pizza too.

Design specs: 5×7 card printed on art linen paper. Full inside spread measures 10×7. All the designs in the card are meant to appear as if they are imbedded into the paper. I did that technique in Photoshop by adding a texture to the images that mimics the actual texture of the card, resulting in the overall impression that the paper is actually richer than it really is. It reinforces an old-world feeling, or, as I hope my cards will always be to my descendants, an heirloom.

What I love most about this design: Everything. I will always love this card.

We LOVE to read your comments about our card! Here’s hoping your children don’t grow taller than you too awfully fast, and since they just might anyway, take a picture now and then, friend me on Facebook, and let me see too!