Finding ‘miracles’ in her own backyard

Denice Hart purchases a copy of the book by Carol A. Schach, right, titled “Fleeting Miracles,” at a Dec. 7 book-signing at Del Norte Office Supply. Del Norte Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

Instead, the book’s award-winning photographs tend to focus on the miniature: feathers stranded on a fence, a dew-beaded spiderweb, a dragonfly resting on a cobra lily.

All of them, as Schach’s writing indicates, are about small moments in life — little miracles in spacetime.

“Many of the photos in the book resulted from moments in our backyard,” Schach says in the book’s introduction.

“If you’re listening and looking, you can realize there’s a lot more life around you than if you’re busy and have to be someplace in 10 minutes,” Schach told the Triplicate.

Schach has lived in the same home for 20 years, but only recently, as she decided to produce a book of original photography and writing, did she discover her muse was literally in her own backyard.

“I do a yoga energizing exercise in the morning on the back deck, and I was watching the birds going up and down in the tree, and I wondered if I could get a photo of them since they usually fly away when I try. But I was able to do it. So I began seeing things I hadn’t taken the time to notice before. It was an eye-opener,” Schach said.

Although Schach had originally intended to combine her photography with prose, she soon found that poetry, something she had little experience writing, was a better means of relating her photographs to her thoughts.

“I think the book is honest from the heart, and you don’t always get that in prose,” Schach explains. “But I feel these poems are honest because they’re things I felt deeply about, so there must have been a reason for that coming out.”

Originally from the Midwest, Schach has lived in the Brookings-Del Norte area for several decades, working at Rural Human Services, College of the Redwoods and in the office of her husband, attorney Gene Schach.

Upon retirement, Carol decided to focus on her love of photography.

“That was the great thing about retiring because I always loved photography, but if you’re working all day or you’re working during the good hours when you can have the right light, then Saturday and Sunday are all that’s left, and you don’t always find the right light those days,” Schach said.

Her schedule cleared, Schach set a goal for her retirement to win a photography contest, and within just a year she claimed the Del Norte Association for Cultural Awareness multimedia award for a photograph of a flower growing in her backyard. In considering what her next goal should be, Schach thought about her interest in writing but decided to stick with photography; however, after winning another award the next year, Schach decided it was time to mix her photographs with writing.

“I wanted to write a book since probably the sixth grade,” Schach says, “but it’s easy to procrastinate. I thought I’m not getting any younger, and it must have been the right time to create a book because everything fell together. There were people who were just the right person I needed falling into my life at the right time.”

A friend happened to form a writing group, which Schach joined at about the same time she made her writing goal. Then she had her aforementioned experience in her backyard that taught her the importance of keenly observing the little things that often go overlooked.

With the help of a friend who is a published writer, Schach received the guidance she needed to find a company that could print her book. The recommendation led her to Tien Wah Press, which prints books in China but has customer service representatives in Redwood City. The representative put Schach in contact with a book designer who made a major contribution to the book, Schach said.

“I never realized what a book can look like until I saw her design. It really made it pop.”

Now Schach is reaping the rewards of her labor, sharing her book with local friends.

“It’s awesome. I had the book signing at Del Norte Office Supply and sold a lot of books that night and saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen for a long time,” Schach said. “The reception has been absolutely wonderful.”

Miracles, as Schach’s book title suggests, may be fleeting, but if they happen in the right order, something less fleeting but no less miraculous may be the result.

“Creating this has been a wonderful experience,” Schach says.

“Fleeting Miracles” is available for $19.95 and can be purchased in Crescent City at Del Norte Office Supply, Walgreens, Gene Schach Law Office, Wendy’s Beauty Salon, Harvest Natural Foods, Evermore Gallery, Gallery of Arts and Culture, and Crescent Harbor Art Gallery. It can also be found at The Book Dock in Brookings, Gold Beach Books in Gold Beach, Trinidad Trading Company in Trinidad and The Garden Gate in Arcata.