I have to admit something here.  Since the beginning of my journey with Lampstand, I have been obsessed with stories. When I first started and began meeting all of you, I immediately became infatuated with your stories; with the things that make you tick, the reason you are the way you are and how you got to where you are.  To an extent, I am sure I will always harbor this obsession in my heart as I so value the fact that there is always more than what meets the eye.  However, throughout this past year I became entangled in stories whose depth was almost too much for me to take in.  Stories covered in loss and heartache seemed to be dominating my lens and my heart.  In the thickness and depth of these stories, I felt a heaviness that I hadn’t yet felt and I quite honestly had no idea how to recover.

Then, almost as if on cue I met this little girl and her beautiful mom who are currently navigating the waves of their own deep story.

We met at a park just outside of Madison.  We hiked, played, smelled flowers, chased light and teeter-tottered our way through sunset. Time suddenly seemed like an illusion as I felt transported back to my own childhood and back to my own memories of visiting the park with my own beautiful mom.  As I began to let myself experience the moment, the heaviness of the whole story I had been feeling seemed to dissipate with every sound of my shutter. Finally, I was breathing again.

I hope that no matter where you are in your story, you give yourself permission to be present in the moments every now and again.  To stop thinking and to just live.  I know they say life is about the moments that take our breath away, but for me, it has become more about moments that let me breathe.

Happy Wednesday.

xoxo

Lampstand