PERSPECTIVE

“We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.”

This quote has never resonated more with me than it does now. I take professional pictures for a living so I do understand and appreciate the value of a moment. I tell others how important it is to be IN pictures with your family. I tell others to forget your insecurities and love on your children, significant other, or pets…. and that you will thank me one day!

I’m opening up my heart because I do believe there is a lesson to be learned in all of this.

My mom was told she has two brain tumors on April 19th and on April 24th after having brain surgery my moms life changed forever….our lives changed forever.  My mom was stripped of her independence and now lives with brain cancer.  If you’ve ever heard the word glioblastoma then you probably understand what that one horrible word means.  It’s aggressive and relentless.

Whenever you go through a life event like this it changes you.  That is how life works.  I made a photo book for my mom to keep with her while she is in a skilled nursing facility.   I realized just how few pictures I have of the two of us together because I felt too fat, my hair wasn’t perfect, or I just didn’t feel like being in a picture.  You can’t get those moments back.  GET in the picture.

I will confess that there aren’t many pictures of myself that I like.  It has NOTHING to do with who is taking the picture…it’s me.  But, when I look back at my life I want to be IN the moments with my loved ones.  I want to remember the first time I held my nephew, all the stupid snapchat filter pictures with my nieces, a picture on the mountain i climbed, taking silly selfies with my friends, and all the other adventures and moments that our short life brings. I used to think pictures weren’t worth taking if everything isn’t perfect but a long time ago I realized the cell phone is so much easier for those everyday snapshots!  JUST GET in the picture but also take time to live in the moment even if that means setting the camera/phone down!

I quickly called a local photographer in my mom’s town when we learned her diagnosis. I am incredibly thankful to Cathy Logue who gave up her a part of her own Mother’s Day to take our family pictures.

My heart is aching on so many levels for my mom and our family but I’m grateful for the memories we have created and for every single minute we spend together.

Here are our Mother’s Day family pictures and a few other favorites through the years.