I grew up in a tiny little town nestled on the bluffs of the St. Croix River. Too young and headstrong to appreciate its quaint beauty as a teenager, I fled the confines of the single traffic light town as fast as my feet could carry me. Now that I am back, however, I am reveling in the beauty of this place; open spaces, fields of grain, deep, lush forests, heavy morning fog that hugs the river as dawn breaks. When Theresa, an old classmate of mine and fellow blogger, contacted me about a family session at Cascade Falls, I jumped at the chance. I spent many a summer playing in the cold, clear water of the Falls. Chasing the stream down to the river, racing over rocks and fiddletop ferns, crawfish and mosquitoes. I had my senior portraits taken here, the falls frozen in ice, the ground under a...
Scenes From A Weekend
Setting Fire to the Rain
Courage is a tricky thing, really. Being brave. Doing what you know is right even as a sea of voices is telling you otherwise. I am not good at courage; living life out loud. Being brazen. Individual. Me.All that changes.Right now.Some say it took courage to move my family 1100 miles for a job. But it didn’t. Not even a little, actually. That choice was easy. Money, career, big house and fast cars, designer clothes, blister-causing red-bottomed shoes, prestige, clout. All the trinkets of a trivial life that society tells each of us we must strive for. Pine for. Lust after. Taking steps to get all that was simple. Moving to Texas to fulfill a once sought-after, haughtily fought for, perfect career didn’t take courage at all. Moving home? Leaving it all to pursue a life where I can spend all my time creating pretty things? Art? That is going...
Longing
The last two weeks of my life were spent in pure, perfect, unadulterated bliss. From Austin to Minneapolis to rural Wisconsin to St. Paul to Madison and back again, I enjoyed every jam-packed second of my time back home. This place, this land of crazy weather and football feuds, cheese curds and microbreweries, is a part of me. My soul. The very fiber of my being. I didn’t take nearly enough photos. Which felt nice, at the time; To be able to set my camera down and just …. be. But now, a few days since we arrived back in Austin, I feel rather empty. As if I somehow enjoyed too much and captured too little. Or perhaps, the emptiness is a sign of what I am actually missing–pieces of myself left on the bittersweet smiles of loved ones waving goodbye…. To all of you who made my trip so amazing,...
