I can't figure out how to start this one. When we started the year we had a lot of plans and ideas about what would happen in 2015. Some of those things happened, a lot of them crashed and burned. Life is unpredictable.We shot a beautiful and intimate wedding the Saturday after Thanksgiving of a friend from our old hometown. They got married in her grandparents' backyard with most of their family and a few friends, and us, there to witness. I was there with them early that day, documenting grandparents and parents, aunts and uncles and cousins, all turning their home into a wedding venue. At one point they decided to move a big China cabinet over about a foot. Instead of China, this cabinet housed photos of all of their family. Children and grandchildren, some still with us, some not. They opened the bottom of the China cabinet and out came all of the photos albums from 10 and 15 and 20 years ago. There's this phenomenon when old photos come out at family gatherings. It is so moving to witness. When all your family is there...you don't just put family albums away. You look for a while. You share. You remember. You tell stories. You laugh and cry. Then you put them away and move the cabinet. Of course the rest of the wedding was wonderful and meaningful, and meant a lot in itself because it was the beginning of a lifelong commitment. I have found myself unable to forget those 20 minutes from that day. It was one of the most wonderful things I've ever witnessed at a wedding. I told Kyle about it the next day with tears in my eyes. What an incredible reminder of how important this job is.Right after Christmas, this bride sent me an e-mail asking if I could please send a few photos of her Grandaddy to her so that she could share them with the family, because he had just passed away.As we go into this year I am confident of this: At the end of 2016 I will have taken the time and put in the energy to make a lot more important images. I will do this on purpose. I will love my husband on purpose. I will love my kids on purpose. I will mess all this up. A lot. We have some goals and some plans. Not a list of resolutions, really. More like a general idea of how we hope things happen. I want to be as ready as I can for them, but I'm 30. That's old enough to know that I don't know anything, and that surprises and taxes, and old china cabinets full of photos, are pretty much the only sure thing in this world.I hope we can live. I hope we can hope for things bigger and better. I hope we can comfort each other when all those hopes come crashing down.Ready, or not. Here we go. -jade p.s. I did a social media detox designed for creatives for 10 days in December, and decided to extend it to a month. Now I've got some better ideas for how social media should get to play into my life. If you'd like to check it out, my friend Ash wrote it, and it's brilliant. Here it is. I have felt less anxiety in the last month than I have had in years, because, I believe, I have made room in my brain to be still and quiet.
