BANANA SKY - DVD: Photography and Music for Relaxation, Nurturing and Balance

BANANA SKY has LAUNCHED - ORDER BANANA SKY, the start of a DVD series, with photography by Sheila and healing music, by Jeannie Fitzsimmons, designed to offer relaxation, nurturing and balance. Click on the small triangle to LISTEN. To PAUSE click on the 2 vertical bars. STOP is the square. Hear what Jeannie Fitzsimmons said after watching BANANA SKY

BANANA SKY – The Evolution

One of the things I am most passionate about in life is discovering new and different things, especially in colors, shapes and textures in nature. I also love the “mystery” of an object or an event, particularly a growing, or an ongoing, changing one.  Once I purchased a digital camera a few years ago, it started becoming a habit for me to grab it and start photographing whenever anything catches my eye.

My love affair with the banana tree started in a tropical garden. As I was walking, I looked skyward and saw one for the first time. I was immediately attracted to the hanging stalk filled with circular rows of bananas and a large pod of beautiful colors at the bottom of the stalk.

Then another tree with a much larger pod caught my eye. The richness of the color and the textures, especially the unknown of rows of “fringy things,” under the unfurling petals of the almost-purple pod became another area of fascination for me.  Anytime I revisited the gardens I would search for these two trees to check on the changes.

I’ve since had the opportunity to observe the whole growth process on an almost daily basis. I had the privilege of watching a tree rapidly growing, putting forth a single bud, developing rows of bananas and ultimately starting to die off.  The “fringes” actually become the bananas. I learned that after a certain point they switch gender and continue appearing but do not develop into bananas!

As I started photographing,  I found myself caught up in the drama of the unrolling of the giant leaves, many splitting into fringes, their rhythm in and of themselves.  Then came the play of the lights and shadows from the sun, as well as the reflections in the leaves of the palm fronds behind some of them. The sky too played a role, above, beyond and between the spaces of the leaves.  At times it was a flat blue, other times rich with clouds.  The final fascination came with the unfurling of the pod petals and the teeny bananas in rows hugging the under side of the beautiful purple petals.  So much joy!

Ultimately, I found that in addition to the process of taking the photos they were also serving another purpose.  During times when I was in an unsettled emotional state, I could simply go to my computer and run them in a slide show.  An almost immediate shift and peace resulted.   This led to my creating this DVD to share with others to offer a similar opportunity for peace and respite.