Perseverance

It's just a grimey, ugly, to-the-bone cold day in N.E. Pa.  Hurricane Sandy made it's way through just 2 days ago and by now there really aren't any leaves left on the trees.  As I was driving to the studio this morning my eye was caught by this bright colored tree. It wow'd me, at the thought that it looked like it was trying hard to hang on to those leaves. I drove another 1/2 mile or so and decided that there was some metaphor in that tree.  It seemed to stand for great perseverance. How that tree hung on to its leaves through the storm! It stood it's ground, refused to give in to the forces around it and came out the other side standing beautiful among all the other trees around it. What is different about that particular tree that there isn't a single one around it like it? I'm not eloquent with this kind of thing but I have thought about that tree all day. It made me think how each of us needs to also stand strong, and hang on to our family/dreams/beliefs/goals (you can fill any word in there) and if we have that, we can weather any storm and will come out of it better and more beautiful. I'm sure you see my point (again, I'm not as eloquent as I'd like to be but I'm sure you understand). But it really makes you think doesn't it?

Sweet 16

Bill and I were excited...our friends Tom and Kathy, who we have known forever, were coming out from NJ to their summer house for a weekend and we were going to join them for dinner. We do this as often as possible (which is actually never as often as we would like). So we arrived and sat chatting for a few minutes and Kathy handed us what looked like a polaroid photo or something - the two of them grinning ear to ear. When we looked closer - we realized it was a sonogram!!!  I don't know how long they were married at this point, my guess was maybe 9 or 10 years or so but this was a humongous cause to celebrate!!!  Megan came into the world 9 months later.

So let's fast foward to this September. Kathy calls me randomly in the middle of the day. Hmm, interesting, something must be up. We talked for quite a while because we definately don't see each other much   anymore - it's probably been 2 years (the guys see each other more often).  So the next question she has floors me.  "Can we make an appointment to come out to have Megan's portraits done? She just had her Sweet 16 party and we want to have portraits done of her and us as a family." (I should mention that Tommy joined their family several years after Megan to make their family of 4). It was my honor. They came a week or so ago and we spent the afternoon and evening making portraits and going to dininer.

Finally the point....Of course the point of my rambling little story is ....wasn't it just last summer that they showed us the sonogram?  I haven't seen Megan in several years either so in such instances time should have stood still right? Wrong.  It was such an honor and so much fun doing her portraits and getting to know her again, now as a beautiful an d mature teenager. We did very formal poses and we did some sassy fun poses and we even went out in the middle of the road for some with an urban flavor.

It was a blast....It's a good thing we don't get any older, only the kids do!