the second one

here we are, month two, and who knows what's going on?

I went to visit one of my bridesmaids, Holly, in NYC for two days at the beginning of the month. it was an impulse trip and we visited 6 coffee shops in 48 hours. the loft in her apartment has the dreamiest light, so that's where this photo came from. I was in my head a lot this month, so I think this photo came from that too.

truth be told, I did not take self portraits weekly for the rest of the month. I sent my camera in to be recalibrated, and when I got it back, we were in the last few days of February. my brother came to visit for a week and it was an exciting time in more ways than one, but I think my favorite times were the evenings spent at the apartment working on the puzzle Ben got me for valentines day.

this was one, an attempt to take advantage of the last moments of light before a long drive home, and two, an attempt to convey my feelings after this month haha. 

I feel like I'm reaching for sunsets. yearning to find or infuse vibrant life into the traffic of long commutes, hours spent sitting at a laptop, nights of dinner - dishes - sleep before starting it all over again. maybe it's adulthood stealing life away from us, maybe we can steal it back.

this is not actually the photo I was going for when I walked outside to take this. I had a very different picture in my head, which you will probably end up seeing in march's blog post, but this was my favorite from the series. you could go a lot of different directions with this photo, but because I didn't shoot it because I was inspired but instead was inspired after I shot it, I'm going to let you interpret it how you will, and I'll do the same.

this is just an outtake to show that I wasn't really going for two hand photos in a row.

I had a lot of goals this month and I met some of them, which I'm content with. in a weird way, I feel like I'm supposed to be digging deeper and pulling even farther back in march, at the same time as stepping forward once I'm given perspective. I'm also probably going to blog about the books I've been reading, just in case someone wants to read some good quotes and concepts instead of or before reading the whole book. we got annie f. downs and brene brown coming up next. 

happy end of the shortest month of the year! 

the first one

reviving this very, very old blog as a personal means of documenting. time goes very fast and I forget things, but I want to have something to look back on after this year, because I already know God is going to exceed my expectations (in welcome and less welcome ways, lol).

monthly (yep probably the very last day of the month, consistently) I'm going to post a little personal recap + the three or four self portraits I took that month. for accountability etc. and life updates for all my loves that are far away. so here's January.

Ben and I went to Hawaii for a week for our honeymoon. it was an adventure - we stayed at an airbnb in a small town instead of at a resort, so yes, very different experience than when you usually think of Hawaii. also, the hikes go down and then back up which is backwards in my brain. we did however get to swim with dolphins which was expensive, exhausting, and magical. this night was absolutely a highlight - the stars were amazing and we just got to soak it in for a minute.

we arrived in Pennsylvania after photographing a wedding in Texas late at night and Ben headed straight to work. he had one day off so we started the move in process (basically he did lots of things while I stressed out with my coffee and finally managed to unpack my suitcase). it was an insane week leading up to our second wedding celebration on the east coast, but this was a still moment.

photographically and creatively, I am probably the least proud of this photo. possibly because I felt a lot like it looks - it was post wedding exhaustion, saying goodbye to all of my precious humans, processing all of the disappointments I wouldn't get another chance to fix, all of the love from friends and family that stepped in and carried us like Christ. I'd been surviving from moment to moment for the past month and this was my "I got up just in time to get my husband to work and not to help the disaster on my head" outfit. 

a dear friend gave us a house plant, which I am praying I can keep alive, and that we affectionately named frank. I loved the light for this moment and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the apartment looking as clean as this corner of the table. LOL. I took this two seconds before leaving for another wedding weekend in Virginia. we were tired, so we learned a lot about each other and ourselves and got to spend some unexpected time with some good friends. I also got a quiet hour with God at a coffee shop that was something my soul has been craving and it's started to open some doors in my heart, so I'm super grateful for that. 

tune in next month for a super random collection of life notes and photos from Rach.