New year. New season. New beginnings. All that jazz. I'm not much of a resolution person beyond resolving to try to be more of the stuff that matters: more kind, more generous, more honest, more grateful, more forgiving... more human, really, at least I hope. Catching up several months of daily photos blogs over just a few days has clarified for me that I want to keep paying attention the the nuance and detail that helps me find my way back in the direction of all those mores. I hope my perspective invites you to see the mores that matters in your own life too.
January made me anticipate other mores too. More love and light, more goodness, more grace. More babies and families in front of my lens. More roots in Connecticut. More happy endings at the hospital. More passport stamps and more nieces (!!!). Here was January, day by day. It was a good month. I'm excited to have my daily photo posts caught up. Lots of 2017 sessions coming up next.
January 1: New Year's selfie after a frigid walk with my favorite.
January 2: Back to work, back to morning rhythms. Pro tip: throw a handful of frozen raspberries in your oatmeal while it cooks. So. Good.
January 3: Dissertation writing, with the end in sight. He's a worker bee, my husband.
January 4: So. Much. Snow. I got to work from home, which meant getting a ton done while also sneaking outside for a few photos. It snowed and snowed and snowed. The shoveling and snow blowing that night was quite the chore.
January 5: Self-portrait. On Fridays this year I'm doing a weekly photo with two other photographers that we're sharing on Instagram (@52_Fridays). We're photographing the same prompt each Friday. I'm excited to have a joint project.
January 6: Our Aussie friends returned after a few days of skiing, and we were glad to have a houseful again.
January 7: Cassidy and I took a drive to see if the lake that I often run by was frozen, and we found neighborhood kids playing hockey on it. It was perhaps the most New England moment of my life here to date. I loved it.
January 8: Dinner shenanigans.
January 9: Did you remember the character l who loved her pets on Tiny Toons?
January 10: Flight delays kept Kate and Steve and the kids with us for a few extra days. Ty took them to the airport on the 10th, and they left us a thank you gift and the kindest card. Of course I cried. Everyone should have friends like them.
January 11: When I got the 9-5 I didn't realize how much I'd enjoy needing to get ready for work every day and having reasons to wear nicer clothes on the days I am so inclined (or have a meeting).
January 12: Free-lensing was the second prompt for 52 Fridays, and I took the shot at my cousin Amanda's rehearsal dinner.
January 13: It had been several months since I shot a wedding, and getting to shoot my cousin Amanda and her Brian's stunning day was so much fun. They were the kind of happy that felt contagious all day long. The snow made everything gorgeous. It was lovely and made me want to shoot all the weddings (or maybe just a handful every year...)
January 14: My grandma is beautiful, resilient, strong and creative. I'm so glad she let me take her portrait.
January 15: Inaugural training run for marathon number 5. It was important to me to have a photo, so I set up the shot and Ty took it for me.
January 16: The snow melted off, but the ice remained. So January of it to do so.
January 17: We saw "Waitress" on Broadway. It was Ty's first show. Sarah Bareilles and Jason Mraz played the leads. We drove into the city in time for lunch and picked up a pizza on the way home for dinner. Being in such close proximity to New York still doesn't quite feel real.
January 18: We drum our fingers by the banister when we walk down the stairs, and the cats go crazy.
January 19: The prompt, window light. This could be any morning or evening, him in the shadows and her in the light. His birthday. A good one.
January 20: We attended the Connecticut Women's March at the Capitol in Hartford, and this little buddy nailed all the feels.
January 21: The sun came out, and temperatures hovered a bit higher than they'd been. I walked the dog and could not believe the number seemingly very content birds.
January 22: Brought an ancient Keurig Ty had from way back when to work. Game changer. I figure I'm likely producing less waste than an almost daily Starbucks trip and am definitely saving money. Now to get a reusable filter.
January 23: The eeriest foggy walk.
January 24: It's hard to be Albert.
January 25: Texture.
January 26: The 52 Fridays prompt was big picture. Here's what I wrote to accompany my post: A year ago we moved cross country. We wanted to try our hand at New England life. We longed for a smaller city. We dreamed of seasons. Neither of us ever felt like Texas quite fit us. Still, it was scary. Our people are in Texas, and while Texas never quite felt like a fit, our people most certainly did.
A job opportunity at the children's hospital in Hartford, Connecticut opened up for me, a perfect fit, really, in terms of my skill set and desire to contribute with my career differently after some health issues. We suspected moving would be good for us as individuals and together. I thought I'd like working 9-5 for a season. He thought environmental science jobs were less likely to be cut here. It felt like a big risk, and in long talks ping-ponging pros and cons it began to seem like a great adventure. "We can always move back..." I dared not dream of just how fertile the soil Connecticut would be for us. Our people in Texas remain our people, and we miss them. But we've grown and changed. We may have been married in Texas, but I think this last year made us a family. It hasn't been all roses, but the big picture looks like a whole lot of goodness. My commute is under 15 minutes; his opportunities look good. We can be at the beach or the mountains in under an hour, in Boston or New York in under two. And we have a house that we love in a little city that we're coming to know. I think we've found our way home. I'm not sure this double exposure totally works, but it felt like the right photo to share for this prompt.
January 27: Caturday shadow play.
January 28: Perfect Sunday.
January 29: Monday morning, before my run, before the breakfast-pack-a-lunch-rush, before the frantic shower-where's-the-other-sock, before traffic and NPR, before the stack of emails, before the team meeting, before sorting through the week schedule, before all of that, morning pages and coffee, before 6 am. Those morning pages and that coffee... keys to starting the week off right in my corner of the world.
January 30: Winter walks may be cold, but I love getting outside, especially with him and after a long day at work.
January 31: Breakfasting as an act of self-care. It's a thing. Trust me.