Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear… I know 2020 has not looked at all like many of us expected or hoped. We have seen everything from a few bumps and bruises, to joyous celebrations of love, to life altering, heartbreaking tragedies and everything in between. There’s nothing like 12 hours of open road (sometimes filled with music and the windows rolled down) to induce lots of reflection and prayer. 
It’s OK to look in the rearview mirror and take stock, to reflect, and make note of the things you want to change or things you want to be different…
The key is to keep moving forward.  I pray for your hearts, your trials, your joys, and your triumphs. And I’m praying 2021 is kinder to us all. 

I know there are moments that are far behind that still seem so very close and moments that are so close but yet feel so far away.  I pray we just keep moving forward, keep trying to be the best versions of ourselves.  
This year feels like I have not been the best version of myself that I can or would like to be.  It's been full of challenges and heartaches, professionally and personally.  It has been full of disappointments, cancellations, confusion, depression, and simple frustration.  Businesses have suffered, including my own.  Fortunately, I was able to supplement my income when others were not so lucky.  Personally, 2020 has been the year I lost my mom.  It could have happened at any time but it happened during an already trying year.  As I get further and further from the actual day, it seems surreal to think that it happened 6 months ago, when, in some moments, the pain is so crushing I feel as though I can't breathe and it feels as though I'm reliving "the day".  I know others have lost loved ones, battled (and are battling) cancer, struggling financially, and faced a myriad of other difficulties.  

But this year, with its lowest of lows, has been met with some of the highest of highs.  I married the one my soul loves.  It was a lovely day.  Simple.  Beautiful.  A day on the beach surrounded by the most important people.  There were a few understandably absent, and they were missed oh so terribly.  But the weather was gorgeous.  He was handsome.  I felt beautiful, just like a princess.  This year saw other marriages, some lovely ones I was honored to have captured, including my the birth of many precious babies, my niece's second little girl, the grandbabies of friends.  There is a lot of ugliness in the world, so much pain, and hatred, and illness, disappointment.  But oh my heart, life is still beautiful.  Life still happens.  We get to live and breathe and love and choose how we respond to our situations and circumstances.  Some days, we are just surviving and that's ok.  But let's try to really live in 2021.  Let's take it all in.  Every breath.  Every moment.  

Originally published: 12/31/2020