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Welcome to the world little man!

“So if the work you are creating demands completion before you can find fulfillment, it’s doubtful the creation will be finished, and perhaps more doubtful it will be any good when it’s done. You’ll labor through it, pushing it up a hill like a broken cart. But if you can love the actual work, not the finished product, you’re on to something. If you have a rhythm, if you get up every morning and work for a few hours, and you like the getting up and the work, and you don’t think about how great it will be when it’s done, but rather how great it is every day that you get to get up and do the work, your creation will be tremendous. Don’t think about the finished product. Stop rewarding yourself with something that doesn’t exist, and may never exist. Instead, think about how delightful it is you get to do this, you get to make this, and how delightful it will be to get up and do it again tomorrow.”-Donald Miller via his Blog

When I came across these words, man… was I hit straight in the face.  Especially when he says ‘You’ll labor through it, pushing it up a hill like a broken cart’. WOW, it feels just like that sometimes.  With the branding, self marketing, strategizing, blogging, editing and all the other details that go into launching your own photography business in new directions, it is easy to put that proverbial broken cart before the horse.  I  realized recently that Kevin and I needed to fall back in love with what drew us to the craft to begin with.  The connection.  That is what it is all about.  The connection that you have with the subject that you are shooting.  The connection the subject has with you.  When you do what you love everything is a successful byproduct of that love.  That is when your work transforms you as an artist.  It is no longer something you do, it is who you are.

I have to remind myself of who I am every now and then.  It sounds silly to a lot of people but it is so easy to lose sight of who we are and what drives us.

Cheers, D

I had the joy of working alongside my dear friend Jess Koehler again yesterday.  We have been in the process of finalizing a project together.  I am always so grateful each day we get to work together.  There is nothing quite like working alongside your good friends.  Any who, I arrived to the home office a tad late and despite my tardiness she welcomed me in with a delicious cup of Chai.  I am not a coffee drinker so to be handed this delightfully sweet, but not too sweet, spiced indian tea….well, that was the way I needed to start the day.  Just the right amount of caffine to jolt me into focus.   This morning I woke up thinking about that tea.  I thought to myself “I can probably come up with something similar” and I set off to do just that!  It’s not a traditional chai with all the worldly spices and such.  But there is just enough spice to make it all together delightful.  I am not usually one for following a recepie so I just really did a little of this and a little of that.  I did, however, manage to remember what I used just in case I wanted to recreate.  It was delicious… so I wanted to share it with you.

Here is a little Spiced Black Tea, perfect for two and maybe for three.  Play around with the ingredients, but be sure to set the mood, take time to enjoy, and share with someone you appreciate.  I enjoyed mine in the garden with my mother, and of course my dear friend Canon;)

Cheers! D

It has been raining, a lot.  Lately every day is rainy, rainy, wet and rainy.  I love the rain, but every now and then I need a little glimmer of light.  Even if for a brief moment where clouds separate to let me see that there is some blue sky shining on the other side.

For all those out there who are like me and love to explain most things in life as a metaphor, you can probably tell by now, I don’t just speak of the rain itself.  Though the prior statements are true in regards to actual rain, sometimes it is the metaphorical ‘rain’ in our lives that is overwhelming.  I do love all that rain could symbolize; refreshment, cleansing, the flooding in of any emotion…  I get all those things, I do…but  around the Holidays things tend to  get, well, a bit stressful around the Snelson homestead.  And with literal and metaphorical non stop rain for the past few weeks I can’t help but stop and think; what does this all mean?

The last few months we have encountered our fair share of roadblocks.  I think over all we have been optimistic and hopeful but over the last weeks it has been increasingly difficult to simply remain calm.  With a flood of hardships, you can’t help but lose your cool every now and then, and today I just about did that.  And of course as the saying goes ‘when it rains, it pours’. Today in true form and fashion, there was just one more mild road block that felt like genuine cats and dogs raining on my head.  It was enough to make me nearly crack.  Have you ever had those moments when enough was simply enough?  When you have been working hard to not lose it and you’ve done a pretty good job handling it? Well, today…..was not that day, at least not doing ‘a pretty good job handling it’.  The torrential downpour of literal and metaphorical rain, today, were literally getting to me.  I had enough.  I simply wanted to know there was hope, an end in site.  It was that moment that I stopped, put my head in my hands, and was quiet….really quiet.  From the kitchen window was a ray of light  peeking through…. My mom walked through the door at that moment and out of her mouth came the words, “there is light…that must mean that somewhere out there is a rainbow”.  WOW….for my family rainbows hold a huge significance.  In the Bible a rainbow was the symbol of God’s promise to Noah that He would never flood the earth again.  Being the metaphor gal that I am, the rainbow has been a symbol in my life that God’s promises are always good.

I did not actually see a rainbow, but I saw the light.  For a moment, the rain had stopped and the mere thought of a rainbow peeking down, even into someone else’s backyard, was enough to bring calm.

Here is what I love most about rain.  When it is gone, things are greener, the skies are bluer,  it is truly life giving.  The light shines a bit brighter  when the rain has been around.  I like that a lot about the rain.

I love the rain!  Let me start to finish this post by stating that fact as to not create any uncertainty.  I do, I love it.  In fact Kevin and I dream of a day when we can be surrounded by all the good it brings while living in our dream city Seattle….

Cheers to the rain!

D