January 26, 2021...Is it just me or is this month seemingly FLYING by?! Especially after the drag of 2020 we just came through, it seems crazy to me to think we have almost completed a full month of 2021.
Like so many have done this month, I've spent a lot of time thinking back on the previous year. And as much as 2020, quite frankly, stunk... I don't want to chalk it off as just a waste of a year. Instead, I've tried to think about how I can use this past year as a learning experience. So what has 2020 taught me?
More than ever, I've come to learn and understand the basic need of human contact. The friendly smile from your local grocer, the kind word from an old friend, and the bear hugs from your best friends and family. They are all such seemingly small things that we barely noticed before 2020. But once they were stripped away, we all realized what we had been taking for granted for years. We longed to hold on a little longer, laugh a little more, and love a little deeper. Time slowed, almost halted, as we waited...wait...for a sense of normalcy again.
In 2020, I read more stories and saw more posts than ever before about the power of photos and memories. Friends shared photos of their grandparents that had passed, moms shared photos of their baby bumps before having to say goodbye to their precious baby, and families shared photos of Christmas traditions past.
Photography started as a fun hobby, but this past year has turned it into a strong passion. A passion to capture priceless memories to share with the future generations. An urgency to capture the perfect family photo that will forever tell a story even when the memory has faded. A treasure to cling to when the road gets hard.