I haven't posted on this blog in months and the reality of that has been glaring in my heart and mind.  I am, by nature, a storyteller.  My entire life I have been a writer and an orator.  You can ask almost any of my childhood friends, they would laugh at me because it took me so long to tell a story.  I love telling the breadth of any story because I truly feel the more people feel known and seen the more they are allowed to be themselves.

For the first few months of not blogging it felt like I was disappointing everyone. I would wake up in the morning, determined to post my most recent wedding or engagement session and then before I could blink it was 9pm and I was exhausted.  I felt defeated.

But as the days went on there was a sense of freedom that came from it.  I could focus on editing and client meetings and making sure my couples were getting their photos in a timely manner.  I could put effort into other things that were being shoved to the side, mainly myself, my family and my friends.

I could hear other photographers' voices in my head, touting their expertise and reminding me that if I didn't blog once a week or post x-number of Instagram stories or spend y-number of minutes engaging my audience on social media that I would simply be forgotten.  People would move on to the next photographer.  They told me I could think of all the excuses I wanted to but there would always be someone who pushed past those excuses to hustle harder.

But I realized that in forgetting to take care of myself, that's when I was truly forgotten.  As I looked at my life and the things that were keeping me off social media, they weren't excuses, they were reasons.  My children are not excuses.  My husband is not an excuse.  My new baby who is growing so fast I can hardly handle it is not an excuse.  They are all reasons to not hustle harder, they are reasons to step back to make sure I am not stepping over them in order to reach one more client.

Life is good and it is also hard, and it has seasons that can feel heavier than others.  We cannot tell authentic stories without recognizing the interludes that indicate a change in time, place or even purpose. 

So here I am again, anxious and excited to share the work I've been doing this year with you.  I am excited to get these photos up because they're filled with some of the most excellent people I've ever met.  They are the people who didn't fret when there wasn't a blog post.  They didn't balk at the fact it took me two days to reply to an email.  They did not forget me.  And my priority is to make sure they don't feel forgotten either.

With that, keep a keen eye out and follow along, there are some stories I need to tell you.