I've been thinking a lot about the importance of remembering and its role in our present perspective. I often am frustrated because I am not where I want to be, where I swear I should be by now. I am just not there yet. When I quiet my impatience and frustration and turn my attention to remembering... my perspective changes drastically. It turns to thankfulness, valued moments, thoughtfulness towards those I love and my frustrations become silenced. Our culture is so hurried to get to the next place, the better job, the lesser weight, to find "the one", but when do we sit and remember. Remembering who we were, where we came from, who traveled with us along the way. In a lot of ways I'm in the business of remembering. I capture the way new love looks after " yes" has been said, how new parents are insecure and so in love, how children's eyes look at any given age, what her mom looked like a few weeks before she was gone, and how love has grown into a lifetime of devotion and committment. I want to remember how it was. That is why my philosophy is to come as you are, because it IS extraordinary without any extra doctoring. You will want to remember his dirty 5 year old face , not combed hair and polo that he only wears when you make him.
All of this goes along with both what my personal life and business is built on. Beauty is in the ordinary all around us. Reading books on the sofa with your love beside you is magical. It shapes you, forms you and it never happens quite the same again. Time keeps passing, children keep growing and we all get older. I want to live in reverence towards each day I've been given. Don't you? Why do I so easily forget where I was one year ago? And the friend that selflessly gave to me? They are all fibers in this colorful tapestry that is being woven.
So today I remember. I remember the day how he proposed under the magnolia tree with string, our first ugly house, the family I left behind that I miss so dearly, my failures and many tears, my friend's deep losses, the witness of new life, eating dinner together for a year, a kitty on my pillow every morning, the hope of possibility, painful changes, and the gift it is to be alive. Each moment makes me who I am today and who I will be tomorrow.
