So, as I was running around my house one day, something caught my eye.  

A few weeks earlier my friend gave me this rock and on it she painted "Bloom where you are planted".  I thought it was sweet and very thoughtful, but my mind was too clouded for those words to really sink in.   This day the words really hit me.  It was sitting on my desk which was buried 4 inches deep in papers and it was like a beacon..."Bloom where you are planted".  "Bloom where you are planted."  The military is going to move us...that's a guarantee.  It's going to be tough...that's a guarantee.  Each time it is up to me to be creative in how I run my business, or at this point not really run my business by myself.  Each time I get an amazing opportunity to make new portraits of new families, capture that once in a lifetime moment, meet new people who all have a story to tell.  And it hit me...it's my responsibility to bloom wherever I am.  If we had stayed in Waldorf, I may not have realized this, I would be creating photos and be very busy (which I truly loved), but I wouldn't have seen the need for growth in myself.  I would have been too busy with running through life portrait to portrait, wedding to wedding, and I wouldn't have taken this opportunity to cultivate my craft and build my photography knowledge and see the changes I NEED to make in order to run a successful business, and here's the key words, into the future.  I have this incredible opportunity to really grow myself, to truly develop the skill set to be a successful entrepreneur...I want that.  I want to be successful, I want to be a strong business that can reach communities "Neer and Far".  

I realized we all need to "bloom where we are planted".  Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, make the most of it whether that means taking a break and traveling, making a change to your day, reaching out to your community, volunteering somewhere new...just do it.  I've come to the conclusion that after nine years of being a stay at home mom, breaking out into the "work force" is going to be very challenging for me.  Being a stay at home mom didn't feel like work, in hindsight, it was what God called me to do in order to keep my life stable.  I won't say I liked every minute of it, but in looking back I loved 100% of it and would do it over again.  This...this finding what I want to do or if I should be doing what I'm doing...that's hard.  I was talking to a friend, a very wise friend, about this struggle I am having that whether photography is something that God wants me to do or how to glorify Him in it, leaving the wheels in my brain just spinning like tires on an icy road.  She told me that he calls us to do "an excellent work" no matter what we are doing.  To work with integrity, kindness, love, perseverance with Him at the center...it could be my photography, but it's mostly how I interact with my clients...that's where I can really make Him shine through. Even when it feels like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.        With God at the center of my life, my top priorities are my family and meeting their daily needs...that's just a fact.  I am seeing my weaknesses and my strengths, I am hating my weaknesses right now.  I told my husband last night, "I wish I had a teeny tiny bit of a type A personality."  I feel so far from type A, I should just be on a different alphabet.  Maybe a number!  This is what i'm struggling with lately.  I know, I know I really need to embrace Mackenzie and if I need to make changes then quit being a baby a make them little by little.  

All I can say is I'll try.  And remind myself that I am never alone, I just need to look upward and outward because you never know there may be someone right next to me with the same struggles.

Ciao amici!

Mackenzie