Monday Confessions, Spring in Quarantine

Good Morning internet friends, how are you holding up? By my calculations, we are starting week 5 in “quarantine” status or shelter-in-home, or whatever your state is currently calling it. The weather here is so awful right now that I am thankful to not have to actually leave. The wind and rain is whipping against the house and it’s supposed to last all day.

I took a few minutes this weekend to appreciate some spring scenery along the Brandywine River, after I made a few Easter deliveries to family up north. It’s hard to both feel the current state of everything in the world and yet see spring blooming outside my window. I wanted to just take a few minutes alone to appreciate the beauty still unfolding outside. I missed the peak of the trees around the fountain but it was still lovely, nonetheless. The history of this park is interesting, as it was “established in 1886, it is the largest urban park in DE, and much like Central Park, owes its origin to the late 19th century “Natural Landscape Movement” of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead. The Park fulfilled the need for public recreational space within a larger urban environment.” It’s definitely worth a visit and I took all of these images while on a 2 mile jog.

I should also say that really my confessions today are actually just survival tips! I know everyone is throwing in their opinions on what to do to make the most of this strange season but thought I would share mine too. I mostly though am finding sanity and solace in exercise, the outdoors, and my faith. Of course my family are a huge part of my daily rhythms, but these other 3 things are my literal sanity these days, because even in a pandemic scenario, all those three things are still possible! I hope you have a good week ahead!

All Images shot on iPhone 11.

Shelter In Place Status

To all my fellow friends in the USA currently in the shelter-in-place status, I want to bring just a little snap shot of spring. Things are hard right now for so many. Even those of us not experiencing immediate crisis are connected to the crisis, like family members in the front lines of health care or losing jobs or work. It’s affecting all of us. I am thankful for the reminder this morning from poet T.S. Eliot that, “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” I am needing lots of fresh starts right now!!! Am I right?!

Dec 31, Confessions at the closing of the year

I keep seeing all these posts like “all the books I read this year” or “the best of my photography” or “what I have learned this decade” or heaven forbid that “ten-year challenge” photo post that keeps circulating. I don’t want to see the ten-year challenge, because if I am honest I don’t necessarily want to see how old and tired I look. The truth is, ten years ago I had 6-month-old twins in the midst of a bittersweet season. The sweet was the children but the bitter was so much more with complicated relationships and deeply struggling finances that led to the short-sale of our first home. Sometimes you don’t want to peek back into a time or place in your life that you remember had so much heart ache, even along with the joys and the ways that God provided. 

  All these posts by other people just have me wishing I was MORE…more organized, more talented, more on top of business, more on top of parenting…or even the post last week that had me guilty for DAYS for allowing my children to believe in Santa.  I am serious, I questioned whether my decision to allow them to believe in Santa would somehow ruin their faith. Crazy, right? Tell me that’s crazy. But this is the reality of the 24/7 internet culture when we constantly allow for others voices and opinions in our heads.

     Here’s the thing, I daily look around and think I should be doing more…yet I cannot possibly do more than I already do. I see the socks I have washed, the meals I make, the emails I return, the photos I take, the counters I wipe, the kids papers I sign, the homework I help with, the students I taught…and all those countless small tasks that fill up our days. I am here to say, if you find yourself here with me, it’s OK to be right where you are. So I don’t have a beautiful, thoughtful post on what 2019 was or wasn’t to me?!  I don’t have my favorite top ten photos from the year to share with you. I don’t have 5 points on what this year taught me. I don’t have all the miles I ran accounted for or even a solid book list of what I have read (why is using something like Goodreads so hard for me?!). I don’t even have an exact calculation but I have done something like at least 700 loads of laundry in the last 365 days. I have also made countless meals, given countless hugs, prayed countless prayers and stayed steadfast in hope. I really have struggled with consistency in areas that I would love to be more consistent in, even this very blog, for example!

The final month of this year will definitely stay with me. I had a small health scare which jolted me into the realities of what really matters. Don’t worry, I am fine (Praise God!!) but walking through the open doors of a cancer center holding Matt’s hand had a way of laser focusing on what is important in my life. All these roles I play are different ways I use my gifts and fulfill my purpose. These small things I do every day are the things that make up a life. If I get to go greater work, then that’s just icing on the cake. Looking forward to 2020, I know I need to take better care of myself both body and spirit. I can’t allow the “shoulds” of life to dictate my days. 

  A few clear highlights for me of 2019 were some beautiful weddings I was a part of capturing and officiating my first wedding ever in November. I captured many families and even met Joe Biden this year. I can’t say that I have met a Vice President before! A big family highlight was adding a furry family member, Nellie, to our home. Here’s a few favorite images of the kids and the dog from the end of the year session in the woods. Wishing you health and happiness in 2020!

Monday Confessions, A Photographer's Perspective

I started back to teaching today at the community college and know many other schools start today as well. I know it’s Tuesday, but feels like Monday after the holiday weekend. I told a family member this week that we are limping into fall…one kid is literally limping with a sprained ankle and the rest of us figuratively are limping with exhaustion. It’s a different kind of tired because summer has had no sort of routine. It has been a full summer both in life and business.

Saturday morning I was sipping coffee from my “blessed” Rae Dunn mug and it hit me as I scanned the photo galleries I shot this summer. These are truly people’s lives we get to capture. I realized that this sounds a bit trite, but it’s true nonetheless. I looked at the four marriages we witnessed, the students heading into their senior year, the families who welcomed new babies, families with multiple generations finally together in one spot, or the other special milestones like communion and moving on ceremonies. I even photographed one presidential candidate alongside the sweet older man who mentored him in politics, and who we have since lost to heaven. When a family sends a note saying, “these photos are worth more to us than any money,” it’s a reminder to me of the value of what I do.

I have captured all these things and more this summer, along with raising four kids and one growing puppy. This all might explain my tiredness, but it aligns with my desire to pause time. In a way, photographers get this privilege, to actually pause time in frames. We get to create physical reminders of people and moments. This is a gift I don’t want to take lightly as I head into a new season!

What a better symbol for a new season than a butterfly? Over the last few weeks I have seen quite a few gorgeous butterflies while I have been out on shoots. I hope you have a great week ahead!

Meeting Joe Biden

Last week I had a phone call that changed my week. I was contacted by a family who was holding a small ceremony to honor their father/grandfather for his service to both the country and the world, as his health is failing. He served faithfully in WWII and then came home to serve locally in his hometown in Delaware. Part of his Delaware connections and influences included Joe Biden. This connection with Biden had survived the decades, which is why it was touching to the family that Biden wanted to attend the pinning ceremony for their family member. I want to protect their privacy at a sensitive time but I wanted to share a few images of getting to meet and photograph Biden last week, especially considering him announcing his run for the presidency this morning.

Biden is very warm and personable, which explains his popularity through the decades. He joked with me about photographers being the only ones all over the world to “boss around” world leaders and they have to listen. He also teased that whenever photographers say “just a few more shots,” that we are never telling the truth. It made me laugh and brought levity to the moment when I felt a little under pressure.

He also shared something his mother used to say that stuck with me. She apparently used to say something to the effect of, “courage is the most important virtue because without courage, none of the rest of the virtues will matter.” I can imagine that advice served him well in life, when things got tough or odds seemed impossible. He has survived much loss in his lifetime and yet continues in public service. Although I wouldn’t necessarily politically align myself with a lot of his stances, I certainly was drawn to his person and character. It will give me a lot to ponder heading into the voting booth in November 2020.

I am thinking on all of this today, after visiting the U.S. Constitution center in Philadelphia yesterday. I have to say, it’s a powerful place. It reminded me yet again of the brilliance and beauty of our system of government. It reminded me of the continued fight for equality among U.S. citizens and a striving from those very early days of our nation to create a strong central government, while protecting personal freedoms. The opening lines of the constitution are so powerful and lay out the purpose of our federal government, “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” May we all consider these words as we work toward that more perfect union and work together to bring about things such as justice and domestic tranquility.

*images cropped to protect privacy*

Signing copies of his book Promise Me Dad

My visit to Notre Dame Cathedral, September 2018

““And if you wish to receive of the ancient city an impression with which the modern one can no longer furnish you, climb--on the morning of some grand festival, beneath the rising sun of Easter or of Pentecost--climb upon some elevated point, whence you command the entire capital; and be present at the wakening of the chimes. Behold, at a signal given from heaven, for it is the sun which gives it, all those churches quiver simultaneously. First come scattered strokes, running from one church to another, as when musicians give warning that they are about to begin. Then, all at once, behold!--for it seems at times, as though the ear also possessed a sight of its own,--behold, rising from each bell tower, something like a column of sound, a cloud of harmony. First, the vibration of each bell mounts straight upwards, pure and, so to speak, isolated from the others, into the splendid morning sky; then, little by little, as they swell they melt together, mingle, are lost in each other, and amalgamate in a magnificent concert. It is no longer anything but a mass of sonorous vibrations incessantly sent forth from the numerous belfries; floats, undulates, bounds, whirls over the city, and prolongs far beyond the horizon the deafening circle of its oscillations.

Nevertheless, this sea of harmony is not a chaos; great and profound as it is, it has not lost its transparency; you behold the windings of each group of notes which escapes from the belfries. ” 
― Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Side view of Notre Dame from down on the bank of the Siene

The view out my window, right over my bed. Every afternoon a violinist would play right there in the shadows of the cathedral.

Early morning light

View in between towers

Some of the famed gargoyles and statues

The spire that fell in yesterday’s fire

A gargoyle’s view of Paris

The bells in the bell tower

Of course “Our Lady” is just as stunning at night!

Yesterday evening, a spark grew into a flame and forever changed the facade of Notre Dame, “Our Lady,” Cathedral in Paris, France. She has seen a lot of human events in her over 800 years of existence, some of which marred her. My hope is that the fire, although drastically changing her, will not forever damage her. Her history is linked to those like Joan of Arc, Henry VI of England, and Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon is said to have revived much of the cathedral, as well as Paris, after being in disrepair . So much beauty and history exists in this same place. It’s often a spiritual place for people of the Christian faith from all over the world. It stands near “kilometer zero” of the French highways, meaning it is the literal center of things.

I am just thankful that I got to see it this past September in the form that it has stood in for so many hundreds of years. When I studied in Italy one summer in college, a professor told us the saying that the church was central to every life in Europe, considered a part of “birth, life and death.” A church was where you were baptized at birth, you celebrated things like marriage in life and then of course, held a funeral at your death. We can look at Notre Dame and think about the many lives it was a part of. We will have to look at this fire as the beginning of the next chapter for her and see what lies ahead. I know many will join the efforts to restore and support the revitalization. The thing about Notre Dame is that it took over 300 years to complete in the first place, so those who embarked on starting the cathedral never saw the finished product. It took a work of faith to build something that one would not see in his lifetime.