To savoring.

I could fill a book, actually probably a library, with all the photos I have of my friends. Posed portraits, moments drinking coffee, exploring new areas, sitting in places filled with memories. It’s my favorite thing in the world- getting to capture pure moments of joy with the women I love.

I can’t wait until we all have babies and those babies grow up and I get to show them all of these photos of their mamas through the years. I can’t wait for those babies to become kids who ooh and ahh at their mothers and admire their beauty. Maybe it sounds like I’m looking to the future, instead of appreciating the now, but that’s not it at all.

Photography helps me to savor. It lets me zoom in on one moment in time, and frame it forever.

Sometimes I feel like life is just moving so dang fast… how did I get here? How am I 26 years old, almost done with dental school, a year away from having “Dr.” in front of my name, two years married to the love of my life, three years living in the Boston area… where did the time go? I get nervous that I’m letting life fly by and missing it- it literally keeps me up at night. I’ll think to myself… what have I even DONE lately? What am I doing now? How am I using this precious time? And then, I’ll roll over and see Ben sleeping like an absolute baby (jealous)- he can sleep anywhere and through anything; this is not my gift. Alas, another night of insomnia thinking about the problems in the world and my favorite cure is looking through photos.

Below are some recent photos I took of my friend Elissa over Facetime. I can’t stop staring at them. Isn’t she beautiful?! Shooting over Facetime was an interesting experience, but I’m so glad I tried it and captured these moments. It was a Saturday morning during quarantine, and we hadn’t seen each other in a few months. We talked for a while, about our mundane quarantine lives, our families, school, the chaos of the world. While we were talking I had my camera out and just snapped a few photos. These moments weren’t planned or staged, they are just moments from a Saturday morning Facetime with one of my best friends.

And these are my favorite moments to capture. Real, raw, unplanned, unstaged moments. Because these are the moments I can look back on, when I can’t sleep and I’m thinking about what the hell I’ve been doing lately. I can look at these photos and remember the conversation and the laughter and the catching up, and remind myself that THIS is where my time has gone. To friendship. To art. To slowing down. To noticing. To savoring.

This is where I hope my life always goes.