I owe it to all my clients. The biggest hugest Thank You there is. I really do. I think it is time I let it out, because lately my mind has been on how much my life, my heart, my spirit has changed in subtle ways since June 2013. For a while there I was not as happy or joyful as I normally am. I still have days I struggle to be that uplifting joyful person I have always been. It’s funny the things we miss as we get older, like the simple fact that as we age, so does everyone around us. I have always said I don’t mind aging, because women get away with more ever year older they get. My idea of being cute I guess, but what I forgot is that the more years you live, the more loss you must face. The kind of loss that rips into your heart and turns you upside down. The kind that makes you wonder if it will ever ease.

My husband always says he admires the way I love people, so whole, completely, unending, because he would never have the courage to be so open. I have to admit, it is an amazing way to see the world around me, to simple love people, no holds bar, but that amount of love brings the same amount of pain when I must say goodby to some one I so cherished, I so loved. It is worse when I must say goodby to so many in such a short period of time. From June 2013, when I lost my beloved Memaw, to January 2014 I said goodby to 4 people I loved and walked with a friend through multiple deaths in her family, only to then lose her. I know life ebbs and it flows. I know death comes and each day we are granted we should be grateful. It is so hard accept the goodby, even though we all know it happens.

And in the middle of it all, my sweet clients were there, allowing me to be a part of their most beautiful days, most precious moments. They allowed me to forget my own pain and sadness as I focused on them. The truth is, with out them I would have been lost, my heart would have shriveled into nothing from the sadness, but each client lifted me in their own way. In the middle of always wanting to be there for my clients, they, not knowing what was going on in my heart, picked me up with their stories, their love, their joy, and it fed my heart. Reminded me that no matter how harsh the pain, loving is always the greater blessing. It is always the right choice, the strong choice.

So today when that pain arose inside me in the middle of editing photographs of my sweet clients, I instead looked upon the story I was allowed to capture and the love so evident there in front of me on my computer screen………and I let the joy overwhelm the pain as the tears rolled down, because I am so blessed to capture the most beautiful thing in the world……

Love. It’s journey, it’s story. it’s joy. For that I say a humble love filled……….Thank you.