To all the momma’s: An Open Letter!

The days somehow seem oh so crazy long (whether you work away from your littles and just trying to rush the day away to get back home to them;  or whether you are at home chasing after your littles).  The hours seem to drag by some days and yet when you finally found the time to sit down for just a moment of peace, you realize that in what felt like that one incredibly long hour or day actually turned out to be a week or a month that suddenly came and went!

How is it that time can feel so sluggishly slow one moment and then in a blink of an eye all of a sudden blow by us so fast it can make our heads spin?!

It’s not about being on auto pilot.  It’s not about being completely efficient at the every day tasks or just trying to get it all in and all done working hard to be the best you can for your family.  It literally just happens!  To me, sometimes it just feels almost like I’m standing still yet watching Linc just speed by, the wild child that he is!

These moments are so incredibly precious and priceless.  We all feel it!  As soon as we bring our littles home, we just want to hold them so tightly because we know each tiny second is a unique experience we won’t get to repeat again!  I know… sounds depressing when it’s said like that, but really it’s wonderfully beautiful!  Let’s just say it:  we you become a mom (or a parent in general… I’m not leaving out the daddy’s here at all)  you are just changed!  Time feels different.  It means a different thing completely!

Each day is a brand new experience!  Heck moment to moment can be a brand new experience!

When I had Lincoln, my view of photography completely changed!  I saw every single second as a possible moment to freeze in time!  I wanted to capture it all!  Gosh I still do!

There are days and moments where I just wish a photographer could follow us around all the hours that he is awake and just continuously and with rapid fire take a million pictures of the interactions we have together.  I love how his little mind works and more than anything I love how he views the world with wild curiosity and complete loving excitement!

Every moment is important!  The way that the time flies around here… I just want to soak it all up and have it saved for later!  I want to fill my house with prints and albums so that he can see who he was and how he has grown!

As mommas we are the memory keepers for our family’s.  We are the story tellers and we get to pass down the history of “us” from generation to generation.  We are trusted to do this and it’s a big gift and a big responsibility!

So often though when we do this, we tend to forget to include ourselves.  We are mostly the ones that are taking the pictures and documenting are memories.

Sometimes (I do this often so I can use myself as an example) it’s uncomfortable for us to be in front of the camera.  We tend to make excuses.  My most frequent excuses are I haven’t showered yet today, my hair looks awful, I’m not dressed well enough!

Do those sound familiar to you?!

Trust me… I can make excuses all day long because I am soo awkward in front of the camera!

BUT…

These are my words of advice that I’m going to offer to myself.  It’s a plea really… to you and to me!  We need to forget those little things and put them aside.  We need to step in front of that camera and be with our children, be with our family!

One day our children are going to want to look back and see us as parents!  They aren’t going to care if we weren’t showered with our hair just so.  (Linc might… because often he tells me “mommy fix your hair!”)   Our children aren’t going to care years from now if we had the right clothes on or we had our make up done.

They aren’t going to care what we looked like exactly… just that we were there!  

They will want to know what our hands might look like and if they have the same ones.  Do they smile like we do or have the same kind of spirit!

It’s those kinds of  character traits that you can’t exactly see but you can feel when you look at an image that our children are going to want to look for!

They will not only want to know their story, but also our story as their parents!

So in this next year my dear mamas:  if you haven’t thought of a goal for the year or a project, maybe start with this:

• Break out your camera and snap away, at all of the moments that draw your attention.  How the light hits your little one’s face one day.  How you love to marvel at how long their eye lashes are.  How they play with wild abandon or read passionately in a little nook.  There is beauty in every single image if you are willing to see it!
• Place yourself and be willing to be in front of the camera with your family!  No matter what, no excuses!

Let’s try and do it together!  I will if you will!

These days that can sometimes feel so long (oh so long my dear sweet Linc 🙂 ) are flying by all too quickly.  I want to spend every second I can soaking it all up and making sure we can remember them for years and years to come!