I want to pause for a moment to celebrate the spirit and charm of a particularly special person in my life - my nephew. He is full of fun (a little boy by absolutely every definition of the word) and yet just as quickly reveals a tender heart far beyond his years.
I was reminded last night, once again, of what truly matters in life when I received an especially somber phone call from my sister. After a week of an unusually strong onset of illness and loss of appetite, my 5 year old nephew was hospitalized and, just yesterday, was diagnosed with Leukemia. What's more, this call comes almost one year after receiving the phone call telling of my father's unexpected hospitalization (which would lead to his death 3 short months later). It is also received exactly 2 weeks before my father's funeral.
A time such as this reaffirms why I do what I do. I am ever grateful for the privilege of sharing with and capturing the joy, the relationships, and the essence of the people all around me. Preserving memories and moments in time is absolutely invaluable because they are always fleeting. Minutes turn into days and days turn into years and before we know it everything around us is different from what it once was. Change and the natural progression of life is a beautiful thing, but it is the recollection of what has been and who we were that propels us into the future... and makes us smile along the way.
I was reminded last night, once again, of what truly matters in life when I received an especially somber phone call from my sister. After a week of an unusually strong onset of illness and loss of appetite, my 5 year old nephew was hospitalized and, just yesterday, was diagnosed with Leukemia. What's more, this call comes almost one year after receiving the phone call telling of my father's unexpected hospitalization (which would lead to his death 3 short months later). It is also received exactly 2 weeks before my father's funeral.
A time such as this reaffirms why I do what I do. I am ever grateful for the privilege of sharing with and capturing the joy, the relationships, and the essence of the people all around me. Preserving memories and moments in time is absolutely invaluable because they are always fleeting. Minutes turn into days and days turn into years and before we know it everything around us is different from what it once was. Change and the natural progression of life is a beautiful thing, but it is the recollection of what has been and who we were that propels us into the future... and makes us smile along the way.