We are closing up laptops, taking midnight drives to look at all the lights, sitting by the fire with Christmas letters and a juicy book, singing carols around the tree with friends and family (who entertain my poor piano skills ), and thanking God for every wonderful promise and blessing He has given.

Brian and I wish you all a wonderful, beautiful Christmas and New Year.

Our daily FB contests will still be going until Friday, December 30th.  But the blog is going to go dark for next week as we sink into the quiet of being with each other, reflecting on all the goodness and triumphs of 2011.  It has been an AMAZING year with all of you.  We have dreamed big, worked hard, laughed from a deep place, stood a bit taller in our confidence, and cried together while uncovering our creative voices in the process. We’ve grown to a readership of 30K plus unique visitors a month.  Hard for me to fathom… And in it all, I treasure our conversations, our dream building…you.  I treasure you.

Our cameras are a little less intimidating.  Our lives are a little bit richer.  And our kids still capture us with every new season of life they enter.

It is a honor to journey this life with you.

Much, much love!

xo,

m

__________________________________

Stocking Stuffers for Your Photo Lover!

1. A copy of my bestselling book, Your Baby in Pictures!

2. Give your wife the gift of CONFIDENCE with her camera in 2012!  Need help being convinced?  Here are the Top 12 Reasons a Husband Should Send His Wife to CONFIDENCE.    We have limited spots left in our Seattle and Orange County/LA, CA Winter workshops.  Women only (sorry guys!).  Tampa, FL is SOLD OUT!  CLICK HERE for Seattle Details and Orange Country/LA Details!

3.  Our instructional, award winning DVD series, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box They won’t make it for Christmas morning arrival, but husbands who give New Year presents are A+ husbands!

4. And, if your looking for a photo lover-stocking stuffer, join me on my FB page every day at 10am for a new contest and giveaways that your photo enthusiast will LOVE!

*New Beginnings Photo Contest Update!

For all of you who entered your AMAZING, INSPIRING photos to the New Beginnings Photo Contest, I was told yesterday that the panel of judges decided on the winners and called them yesterday with the good news.  I plan to post the winners on my blog soon, so we can all be inspired!  I’m super proud of everyone who entered.  I think the most wonderful part was reading some of the emails you sent about how entering the contest–picking your best shots–was scary and empowering at the same time.  Kind of like deciding to come out of the dark with your passion.  This photo contest was so much fun that we are going to have a new one start in early January with some new categories that will make you smile!  Stay tuned for more details!

I’ve been working through the last couple years of photos in an attempt to make some photo books.  Attempt is the key word.   Thanks to Brian’s amazing organization of our 250K plus images, this task is looking super possible!  (Shout out to my awesome husband!)  But seriously, where does time go?  How fast our babies grow–how they change in the blink of an eye.

Pascaline and her BFF Eva, 2009

Even with all the time I spend talking about photography, sharing my passion, teaching tips, I’m still caught off guard–utterly speechless–when I come across a single image from a couple years ago.  I’m amazed at how a single image can hold time still.  A simple “stand in front of the tree” photo holds all the beauty I long to see when I think about the magic of Christmas from years past. There is a time for photo tips and working to improve our photography, and then there is a time to just have the kids stand in front of the tree and smile. Simple but time will only increase its wonder.

Five days till Christmas.  May each day be filled with magic and simple wonder.

xo,

m

Today is going to be special for us.  I’m not sure how, but I’m going to look for it in small things–while being open to big things too.  I mean, it’s 11-11-11 today!  The date alone is pretty crazy and fun!  Right?!

We are getting things prepped for our Dallas CONFIDENCE Workshop this weekend with a few special mini photo shoots this afternoon…I’m so excited.   But before I head out to scout our mini location, I want to leave this special interview with you.

Some of you may have already got my FB news feed, but if not, I wanted to make sure you didn’t miss it.  Many of you have emailed me and asked me to do an interview of myself for our monthly Amazing Mom posts.  Well ladies, this is my version.  Women, especially moms with cameras, have been heavy on my heart–more than ever.   When Clickin Moms, a wonderful community of moms who love photography, asked me to do an intimate interview for them–I thought of all of you.  After four hours of going deep into the heart of why I do what I do, the interview is now live on their blog.

CLICK HERE to read the interview

May it empower you with your camera and comfort you in knowing you are not alone.

All my love and respect,

m

p.s. And you may find a special gift at the end of the interview that has to do with our CONFIDENCE Workshops and the number 50.    (I told you today had good things in store!)

Her words of wisdom give me comfort as I sit in my office in aisle 11, seat D.

Fay had been with us for 48 hours to observe all the different places that energy unnecessary leaked in our home, our family culture.  After Brian and I put the kids to be we talked late into the night.  She had made several observations over the last two days, but one of them rocked my world as a parent.  She said something to the effect of “I notice…you seem to spend a lot of energy throughout the day on trying to fill your kids’ cup with love, as much love as you can, but I also notice from your behavior that after they are in bed you seem to think the cup is now empty and you have to refill it all over again the next morning.  Me Ra, there are no holes in the bottom of your cup!  That cup you fill with love never, EVER empties.  And the truth is that your children will draw from that cup at unexpected times, as you will too, throughout their whole life.  But as you live each day, loving your children, you fill the cup more and more and more.”

I was speechless.  “Me Ra, there are no holes in the bottom of your cup.”

How often have I reacted to my parenting as if the opposite was true?  When a trip is coming up, and I’m not going to see the kids for a few days, I can easily get frantic inside that my love won’t be able to reach the kids because I’m not there to fill their cup of love.  When I stand in the airport and look at the myriad of parenting magazines, everything seems to focus on what we can “do” with our kids rather than who we can “be” for our kids.

Fay wasn’t finished.  With tears in her eyes, she spoke of her two sons who are both men now.  She said, “From one parent who has gone before you, can I tell you that the greatest gift you can give your children is a love for themselves.  If they love who they are, treasure who they are, it will impact every decision they make for the rest of their days.  And when you aren’t looking, they will draw from the cup of love that you have filled over the years–that holds all the truth about how much you love them through and through.”

This was in early June.  We only had one trip for work over the summer.  Fay encouraged me to fill the cup throughout the summer, but from a place that believes there aren’t holes in the bottom–from a place that believes the cup only becomes more and more full.  This was our plan because October loomed ahead, the month I would only be home for six days.  It would be important for me to know during the craziness of this month that the kids had a cup to draw from, a cup of wonderful, simple memories from the summer of long walks, lazy bbq dinners, working in the garden together, camping, giggling over hula lessons for homeschool

and just being…drawing on their experiences of being loved on by mom.

When The Nate Berkus Show called and asked if I could come to NY a couple days early for a project tomorrow…I knew it would mean I would only have four days home this month.  I pictured that cup of love in my heart, full and potent from the summer and our recent week in DC, and it gave me strength.

When I kissed the kids goodbye, I didn’t have guilt in my eyes.  And I could tell that this gave them that much more freedom to enjoy going to grammie’s house.  They are so smart, if they see me acting stressed or worried about an upcoming trip…they automatically start to worry.  But if I can believe the cup I hold for them, with all my love, is accessible to them night and day–whether we are together or not–I can freely hug, kiss and tickle them goodbye.  And in turn, they are set free to head to grammie’s house with freedom and anticipation in their steps.

I still cry when the house is empty, and I realize we haven’t carved pumpkins yet.  I still cry when I think about how hard it might be for mom to be gone so much this month.  I still feel my heart break a little as I type these words.  But carving pumpkins isn’t what gives them assurance.  The activities are fun and wonderful memories, but they are not the sustenance of what gives my kids confidence in my love for them.  To know they have my cup of love, and it never empties, sustains me for the next ten days.  And I have a feeling it sustains my babies too.

As I was growing up my dad traveled oversees every month.  Sometimes he’d be gone for several weeks at a time, and I vowed that I wouldn’t travel as a parent someday.  But isn’t it funny how God plants a dream in your heart, knowing full well that you will not only build a dream but work out your own pain and brokenness along the way.  That if you follow this business of dream building, you will encounter everything you said you’d never do and have to reassess why you made those vows and were they based in truth or fear?  That your dream, if it is true, will bring you to your knees.  The constant realization of how fear sneaks into my life is overwhelming at times and causes me to wonder if my dream is really about living without fear–more than any business plan I’ve ever written.

Do you know what I mean?  Have you also assumed there were holes in the bottom of your cup?  There is rest in knowing those holes don’t exist.

xo,

m

Would LOVE to meet you, catch up with you, HUG you in NY this week.  Come see me at the following places;

Wed. October 26th, 1:15pm-3:15pm, 2 hour talk on how to build your business with Social Media (so excited about this talk–sharing lots of stories and lessons of what has worked and not worked for us–and excited to answer in full a number of the questions our CONFIDENCE ladies often email) (Jacob Javits Convention Center)

Thursday-Saturday: Speaking at SONY booth all throughout the day, doing live shooting demos, showing how I post process my images and talking about how to get a book published (Jacob Javits Convention Center)

Friday, October 28th, 6:30-8pm, Special Book Signing at Chelsea Museum with other SONY Artisans, Brian Smith and Andy Katz!! See their books below! Buy an autographed copy or bring the one you own!

Chelsea Art Museum | Home of the Miotte Foundation
556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
Phone: +1.212.255.0719 x116 | Fax: +1.212.255.2368

Celebrities from film, music, television, and theatre sit for portraits with Pulitzer Prize-winning Photographer Brian Smith and work with The Creative Coalition to share personal stories about the impact of art on their lives and on society. Brian Smith’s celebrity portraits have appeared on the covers and within the pages of countless entertainment and news publications. The Creative Coalition’s arts advocacy programs, led by Robin Bronk, are well-known and respected in Hollywood and Washington circles. Their shared commitment to the arts led to their collaboration on a uniquely powerful campaign to raise awareness of the role of the arts in America, and culminates in the upcoming release of ART &SOUL: Stars Unite to Celebrate and Support the Arts.

Sonoma is the place famed photographer Andy Katz calls home.  His work shows us the life and colors of the seasons, from the barren, icy stillness of winter, to the tender push of the young vines in the spring.  Katz takes us places few outsiders know exist and captures their beauty, allowing us to pause and contemplate the intricacies of vineyards panted amidst stunning natural surroundings.

And yours truly! 

Amit Gupta is an AWESOME GUY,

and he needs our help.  We’ve got FORTY Days to spread the word and sign up as many donors as possible.

For those of you who love Photojojo’s creative DIY photo projects, well, Amit is the founder.  That’s one example of how great he is.  When our instructional DVD series first came out, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box, Amit was so encouraging to me on the phone–cheering me to go for it.  In fact, I met Amit in person for the first time at Photo Plus Expo.  I think that was five years ago…crazy how fast time goes.  Amit’s an awesome guy with a big heart and has had such a wonderful impact on the photography industry.

Now he needs our help.

He recently found out he has Acute Luekemia.  He has FORTY days to find a bone marrow donor from Southeast Asian decent.  There is only 1 in 20,000 donors who are Southeast Asian.  I know the idea of being a bone marrow donor can be scary, but it can also save Amit’s life.  Becoming a donor is soooo easy, just a swab of the mouth and fill out the form.

I’ve got mine in.  November 30th is the deadline to get yours in for Amit.  Will you help?

Amit, my deepest prayers are with you.  We are pulling for you and believing the impossible still happens.  Your joy and empowering spirit have touched so many, and we are going to stay on our knees for the next forty days.

All my love and support Amit,

Me Ra

p.s.

How can you not love someone who is facing such trials and uses this photo, for his campaign to find donors, to bring a smile to our face.

p.s.s. Ask & Learn TONIGHT on SOARORITY forum with Gretchen!  Starts at 5pm PST!

I found my dad in the dark.  He sat in his wheelchair, facing the window.  The shade was pulled. When I opened the door, the light from the hallway illuminated his profile.  Beads of sweat multiplied on his forehead, running down the side of his face.  He was in so much pain that even the light was too much to bear. This is the space he has been in for the last few months.  The accident of a teenage girl texting while driving, not seeing my dad standing and crushing his body, taking his left leg–the accident that happened almost eighteen months ago now haunts him with more pain than ever.  And we all feel helpless to this giant of pain that never lets go of him.

This morning the air is cold and damp, a pure Northwest morning.  I walk forward with the dog, and when we turn the bend that tucks us into evergreens and moss covered paths, I cry.  I am my father’s daughter, and in the mysterious bound we share, I come to the morning air to cry and let go of the helplessness I can’t change.  I cry for his pain.  I cry for his loneliness.  I cry for the unwanted change that he cannot rewind. I cry for the giant he has always been, and the toll I see the pain taking.  And when the moss starts to disappear and the road opens up to a view of the Puget Sound I say a prayer.  “I pray that I would be like a body of water, free to ebb and flow, deep with passion, emotion, water that is never standing still but always alive, able to pour out whether through tears or laughter.”

I know that my morning walks will not always be this way.  For the first few weeks, I fought the tears feeling confused–even ashamed.  But one day I was singing, and I heard an unexpected whisper in my heart.  A whisper that said “I am my father’s daughter”.  And in the intensity of my bond to my father, the most powerful testimony of forgiveness that I have ever lived…if this is a way to love him, pray for him, intercede for the heavy burden he now carries, I would walk my morning walks without question when the tears came.  This alone is our story of redemption.

There was a time when my father’s heart was cold toward me, and I struggled to face him as a stone.  But those days are long ago, and forgiveness has gone deep.  An Asian father who know longer carries shame for his daughter’s rape.  An Asian father who asks his daughter to forgive him for not filling her with love and worthiness, shelters to protect her from such pain.  An Asian father who let goes of his culture to gain his daughter.  An Asian father who redeems all the years lost with his daughter by how he pours passionately into his granddaughter.  I am my father’s daughter, and we no longer face each other like walls of stone.  Forgiveness has broke down every wall that when I see him get out of the car, working so hard to visit the kids’ Tae Kwon Do class, with sweat already coming down his face, I have no wall to shield me from how much it hurts to see him hurt.

The kids eyes light up because Papa, the sixth degree black belt, has come to watch them.  He puts his prosthetic leg on and wobbles toward them with arms open wide to hug them. I can see the weariness on his face, he has been fighting the giant all day.  But he smiles past the pain, and I am in awe.  At the end of the kids’ class, Master Pae, the instructor, tells all the children that they are honored to have a special guest tonight.  “We have a great Master in our midst who honors us with his presence.  He is a Tae Kwon Do master for many years now.  Everyone, bow to Pascaline and Blaze’s grandfather, for honoring us with his coming today.”  All the children turn, face my dad, and bow together.  My dad smiles softly and nods in response.  I can see how much this gesture gives to him.  Yes, he is a great Master, and we are all honored to have him still with us, and I am proud to be my father’s daughter.

I asked for prayer yesterday on Facebook.  And I want to thank you for all your prayers.  He rolled into another surgery yesterday.  He flew from Seattle to LA for the surgery; he found a specialist who believes he can help the pain.  When I talked to him the night before, I could tell his pain was high by his interrupted breathing pattern.   I asked him if he was nervous about the next day, his laughter broke past the pain and he said “I’m so excited to sleep during the surgery Mee-da!  I will have a break from the pain!”  Last night, the surgeon said he is very hopeful for the outcome of the surgery.

Thank you for carrying us with your prayers, as we continue to walk into my father’s new reality–thankful he is still here.

xo,

m

(warning: today is a long one, get that cup of tea )

There is a new word that is swirling in my head and heart these last few months.  The word is Sustaining.

Sustaining.  I’ve thought about this word on a large scale when it comes to our environment and culture, but I’ve never spent much time thinking about the word in application to me as a woman, wife, mom…  As a business woman, I’ve spent numerous hours focused on growth, risk, building, risking and growing…but sustaining.  The word itself captured me like the scent of bread baking in the oven.

How do we sustain ourselves so we keep from burning out and continue to move forward with all our responsibilities, dreams, desires and those we love?

The answer is probably different for everyone, but this summer I took a hard look at what mine would be.  I discovered what I call “Sustaining Energies” in my daily and weekly life.  With the guiding hand of Fay’s wisdom (SOAR! Business Coach and co-founder of Star Consulting), Brian, Fay and I unpacked the idea of designing a life that would sustain us on a physical, emotional, financial and spiritual level.  It started with a simple exercise.

I drew a big circle on a piece of paper and wrote all my commitments around the outside of the circle, things like; Homeschool, Family Relations, Photography, Speaking, TV segments, My Blog, a new Book Project, SOAR! Scholarship Program, Yoga 3x’s a week, Church, Karate and Art Classes for the Kids, Travel…  All these elements are a part of my on going life.  It’s easy for me to check out and say “I can’t manage all these pieces!”  But the truth is that I do somehow, so I can either get intentional about how I manage these elements, or I can feel like I’m always running to catch up.  As Fay said, the circle is my pie.  I’ve only got one pie in my life, how do I want to divide it up with all that I’m committed too?  My heart said, ‘Really?! I can’t find a way to have two or three pies and layer them on top of each other?’ 

After I drew my circle and wrote my obligations around the outside, Fay asked me to write “Sustaining Energies” at the top of the circle on the inside.  She invited me to list things that sustain my energy.  These things sustain me in day to day or weekly life.  They help me give to all those I love, without burning out.  To write them out, see them on paper in front of me, was powerful.  Now I knew that much better what to make time for every day, week, month.  If I committed to these things, my tank would have less chance of running empty.

Some of my Sustaining Energies are;

-Bikram Yoga, 2-3 times a week

-Getting to bed at 10pm (a bed time that is earlier than normal but what I feel my body asking for)

-Eating Well (Gluten and Dairy give me a fever, so making time to eat how my body needs)

-Taking my vitamins/supplements (knowing I need extra Iron, I make the time to keep a supply instead of waiting till I’m depleted)

-Doing my Morning Pages or Morning Walks

-Reading a Good Book Before Bed

-Date night with Brian

-Weekly Family Meetings with the Kids (a new and wonderful event in our home!)

-Thailand

-Having Schedules and Systems in Place for our Family’s Day2Day Culture

-Gardening, Cooking, Baking

-Dinner with a Friend

-Date night with Brian (LOL! I said that twice–must mean something! )

-Two night escape by myself on a quarterly basis

The last Sustaining Energy was the toughest for me.  Fay challenged me with this one when I pushed back, feeling like this was much more of a “luxury” activity (code for, I don’t feel like I deserve to take that kind of consistent time away from my family.)  She said I needed to go away every other month, or even quarterly, and spend two nights unplugged, in a hotel, with nothing I “needed” to do.  She emphasized how vital it is for an artist to spend time in wide open space, creating space whether it’s cleaning out their basement, or going to a spacious place where they can be still, quiet, and allow new ideas, new creative thoughts come to them, and thus, be refueled.  I wasn’t sure how to make this work, but I tried it.  I cried as I left the house, telling Brian that two nights was unnecessary.  Instead, by day two, I realized I was moved by how lonely I was for myself.

On my last trip, I asked the hotel if they had Winter deals.  Turns out, they only offer the Winter deal to those who ask.  And it’s two nights for one!  I booked my next two trips for this Winter, and I’m already looking forward to the wide open space these trips give my heart.

I’m so thankful for this redirection in our business and family life.  Our business and vision is growing stronger every day, but if I’m unable to sustain myself, I won’t be able to keep up.  And those I love would suffer.  So I’m digging deep into the theme of Sustaining Energies.  I’m not a baker, but have found myself baking Gluten Free bread, and the sustaining energy of this single loaf fills our home on Fall evenings.  I find that I am quieter inside, not resisting the stillness, and often retreating in the morning to spend time in stillness.  My head is more clear, my actions are with more intention, and I feel like I’m living in Front of the Bus rather than trying to keep up with it.  But not just me, the kids too.  The more systems Brian and I implement from bed time routines to weekly Family Meeting Nights, the more secure, settled, and safe they feel.

I don’t know if anyone can relate, but I think I’ve bought into the excuse that as an artist, I work best “outside” of systems.  This can get me into trouble if I’m not careful.  With running a business and homeschool, we are already outside of the systems around us.  And yet, we need to have our own systems to sustain the creative life we are living.  The river flows whether I help raise up the banks or not.  Searching for Sustaining Energies almost feels like I’m deciding to build up those river banks, so the river will flow in the direction I desire.  Does that make sense?

September is for Sustaining.  This Fall is for Sustaining.

What are Sustaining Energies that you can write in the middle of your circle?

xo,

m

p.s. ROE Announcement for DC!

We are going to fill a special lady with Sustaining Energy in DC! My deep thanks to everyone who nominated themselves or a loved one.  All of your stories are inspiring and moving.  The decision is never easy.  The winner of the DC Running on Empty Contest is Claudia!  Claudia, we need you to email Genie by this Wed. to confirm you can come.  (genie@merakoh.com)  To read Claudia’s powerful story, along with all the other nominees, CLICK HERE.

We also had ONE spot that just came open for DC.  If you’d like to grab this spot, email Brian at info@merakoh.com ASAP!

p.s.s.  One More Day to Vote for Your Top Pick of Winter CONFIDENCE Cities!

CLICK HERE to cast your vote!

I had a whole list of things to work on yesterday since I was under the weather most the week.  But as 2pm rolled around, something called me into the garden.  I found myself grabbing my camera, leaving the computer and to-do list behind, digging for a Macro lens (a lens I rarely shoot with) and wandering into my garden.  There was no goal, no objective, no assignment; I just found myself standing there wanting to experiment, expand and play.  These are a couple of my favorite!

Pop Quiz for my CONFIDENCE ladies!  This Dahlia photo was shot at a f-2.8, but the flower in the background looks way more buttery, blurry than a f/2.8!  Tell me why ladies?!  What makes that background flower so extreme in blur?! 

I used the SONY Macro 100mm lens / f-2.8.  I fell so in love with the results of this lens that I named the lens “Lush” (short for Luscious!).

This next one is my favorite!  The colors, the lines and curves, ooooh, makes me crazy!

I started a game on Facebook yesterday, and you are all invited to play!  It ends at 4:15pm today!  This artichoke image is in need of a name or caption, post your idea(s) on my FB page along with the other comments and someone will win a $10 GC to Starbucks!  The game was totally random and just for fun, but as of last night at 8:48pm there were 43 comments–with some of the most fabulous ideas for captions or titles! Come join us!  CLICK HERE!

xoxo,

m

p.s. Only ONE more spot left in the Sacramento Workshop!  (it’s next weekend! woo hoo!!)   CLICK HERE to grab it!

p.s.s. Listen for the invitation to wander with your camera this weekend.  You never know what you may capture!  If you’d like, share it on FB with me!

There are three sentences you will NEVER, EVER hear me say again.  They are; “Wait Brian! We could sale that! Don’t throw it away!”

The middle sentence mocks me now.  “We could sale that!”  BWAH! HA! HA! HA!!!!!  Yes, we could sale it…for a whopping TWENTY FIVE cents!  And when the weekend is all said and done, we will have averaged .07 cents a hour for all the time we spent preparing and holding a garage sale!  But we were naive!  I was naive!  Let me start at the beginning…

Since the last weekend of May, Brian and I have been on a war path to purge our home of all the “stuff” we don’t need.  We have given up almost every weekend these last two months to purging closets, drawers,  cupboards, the kitchen, you name it.  And surprisingly, so many people have asked us if we are moving because why would anyone in their right mind do ALL that work!  Well, we aren’t moving.  Instead, we have wanted to do this purge since our first big trip to Thailand with the kids–that was three years ago!

We had been living in the jungle of Thailand for six weeks.  We lived so simply, and here I was nervous we were going to have a hard time without all our stuff.  But turns out, I didn’t even miss our stuff.  Not only did I not miss it, I didn’t need most of it.  Brian and I decided that at some point, we were going to get rid of all the “stuff”.  It felt like it was time this summer.

We’ve been working on letting go of systems we’ve outgrown in our family and business.  We’ve been intentional about sorting through different aspects of how we run the business, and pruning away old life to make way for new life.  It felt like we needed to not only do this on a mental level, but physical level too.  So we started with our bedroom upstairs, ended up spending ELEVEN hours purging it–finding all my pregnancy clothes hidden in the back of the closet from seven years ago!  Every weekend, we worked our way through each closet, drawer, cabinet in our home, feeling lighter and lighter as we went.  The last weekend of July was our official cut off date and garage sale weekend.  We decided we’d spend that last week purging what we dreaded most, the BASEMENT.

We hauled EVERY THING in our basement out into the street.  Insane, right?!  I’m going to show you real photos of documentation, but you aren’t allowed to judge!

And that’s not all!

You are probably thinking, “GOOD LORD!  How big is your basement?!”  It’s pretty BIG!  But, here’s the thing…we never see our basement, so we just stick stuff down there and out of sight, out of mind BUT not out of body!  I think we’ve felt mentally constipated, knowing our basement is getting more and more stuffed.  Yes, we run our business, homeschool and family out of our home, BUT this much “stuff” is too much!  Brian and I felt like we’d physically, emotionally, spiritually feel the difference if we set our intentions to purge even the areas we don’t have to look at every day.

This is one of my favorite photos because we had finally finished emptying the WHOLE basement, clearing it ALL out to the street.  And we felt pretty good about ourselves.  There was this five minute window of feeling like “Yeah, we are the BOMB!”

And then reality set it in the sixth minute, as we looked at each other and said “No What!”

We purged.  We sorted.  We dug.  We tossed.  We said goodbye too.  And I can honestly say that 75% of our basement stuff is now gone.  (That means we have 75% of new space for life to bring us NEW life, NEW adventures, both physically and mentally!)  For example, I’ve been holding on to boxes and boxes of all my rewrites for my first book, Beauty Restored, that was published TEN YEARS AGO!  Just the physical experience of dumping those files, all that weight, into the garbage felt like I’d had Colon Hydrotherapy!  Gross mental image, but I felt EMPTIED!

I’ll tweet a photo once the basement is organized with all the special crates and shelves we bought! (which officially caused us to lose money on our garage sale)

But I know why people don’t do this more often.  One, they don’t need to bond in that special way you do with your spouse.  For real, Brian and I have not argued that much in so long!  We argued in the basement, in the driveway, in the front yard, in the open street.  It was a major Love Fest going on here!

We purged our basement on Wednesday.  By the time Friday night came, the eve of our garage sale, nothing was sorted or priced.  I was an emotional wreck, covered in dust and cobwebs.  The newspaper ad we listed said that our garage sale started at 9am, but people came screaming in like vultures at 7:30am!

Two of the sweetest ladies from one of our CONFIDENCE Workshops came!  That was a SERIOUS HIGHLIGHT to the whole experience.

And people were pretty impressed that we accepted Visa and Mastercard, not to mention autographed copies of my book!

But garage sales have potential to bring out craziness in you! By Sunday, you’ve had people haggling you for lower prices since Saturday morning.  And all of a sudden you start to care about your junk way more than you should.  For example, the lady who wanted the glass, well, plastic, vase that I got with a floral arrangement for .75 cents instead of $1.  And for some reason, I’m no longer willing to bend and we are going back and forth over .25cents.  It was in that moment that I had an “out of body” experience and saw myself trying to get .25 more cents and officially knew I’d lost my mind!!!

The best part though was when we counted up the money we made on Saturday night, and the total was $590!  Yes, $590.  And Pascaline looks at me and says, “Wow mom, that’s crazy that all that work only made you $590 when you make $500 in a 30 minute Mini Session.”  The reality of what she said hit me right between the eyes, and i fell into oblivious laughter and tears!!!

So never, EVER, EVER again will you hear me say; “Wait Brian! We could sale that! Don’t throw it away!”

From now on, the D word rules!  DONATE!

All in all, I’ve got no regrets!  I had to go through the Garage Sale experience to know it’s okay to donate or toss stuff that you feel tempted to hang onto.  My mama tried to tell me!  If only I would have just listened!    But what surprised me the most is how EXHAUSTING the whole ordeal was.  At times I felt like there was no light at the end of the tunnel.  I’d be sorting through stuff for HOURS and the stuff in the street would look exactly the same!  All I could do was keep my head focused on what was in front of me and keeping going.  You are going to think I’m crazy, but we’ve actually been working with Fay (our business coach) to “seek challenge” this summer with the purpose of finding what needs strengthening in our home, business, overall wellness.  Instead of waiting for trauma or crisis to force us into a corner.  Seeking challenge, exhausting, but I can say that I’m building some new mental muscles–getting to practice and work on some things without crisis breathing down my neck.  That feels pretty good.

xoxo,

m

p.s.  But the purging of our home is OFFICIALLY done, yes, that was worth EVERY MINUTE!  I even have an empty kitchen drawer!  No JOKE!

p.s.s.  Starting at 5pm PST TONIGHT, we have the awesome honor of having Michele Anderson from Pinkle Toes Photography join us on the SOARORITY FORUM Ask & Learn!  Check out Michele’s beautiful work, and write down a bunch of questions for her!  She is coming to SOARORITY to empower you and answer as many questions as possible!  Yeah!  Thank you so MUCH Michele!!!!

Last p.s.

We have a few spots left in each of our upcoming Fall CONFIDENCE Workshops in Seattle, Washington DC, Sacramento and Dallas!  I think Seattle only has ONE spot left!  REGISTER TODAY to grab your spot! Start your FALL with renewed creativity and confidence in photography like NEVER BEFORE!

Wednesday is often our day to feature an Amazing Mom–a woman who is real and going after life with courage and kids in tow.  Today, I’ve got one of the most AMAZING moms ever.  My grandma!

I had the most wonderful lunch with my grandma last week.  Just the two of us.  She turned eighty this year and is more beautiful than ever!

There is nothing like time with your grandma.  They have this amazing gift for loving on you.  If you were the President of the United States or a struggling college student, they would love you just the same–through and through.  She filled me up in ways that no one else can, and I couldn’t help but wonder why I let life get so busy and not make more time for the two of us.

I mean here she is at eighty, and she drove herself to the Verizon store months ago and got herself an iPad.  She is the texting QUEEN!  She knows more text abbreviations than I even know the meaning for!

And she’s on Facebook!  I can’t help but think what a conscious choice it was for her to step into the arena of all this technology and find her way.  Without any of us knowing, she signed herself up for classes on how to write and send emails, surf the web, all of it.  Just amazes me.  My grandma has every reason in the world to not adapt, but she mustered up the courage to step into the unfamiliar.  And now I’m blessed to get little love notes left by her on my Facebook page, and Pascaline has a “textpal” with her GiGiMa.

When I asked her if she had any special plans for the next five years, she laughed.  But then she started listing off all the places she wants to go and things she plans to do before she turns eighty five.  She has serious plans.  Could I answer that question with such clarity and confidence if someone asked me?

After I dropped her off, I got to thinking…it can be so easy to get stuck in our ways.  It can be so tempting to decide you are only going to approach life one way because that is the way you’ve always done it.  But what if, what if you opened yourself up to trying things you’ve never tried–even if you weren’t sure you’d find success–but just for the sake of trying.

I’m thinking, if my eighty year old grandma can learn to text–what can the rest of us do?

(love you grandma!)

xoxo,

m