2014: So much beauty and so much gratitude

Is it crazy that it is 2015 now or what? Time is flying. I am so behind on blog posts from 2014 so keep your eyes peeled for a bunch of posts soon! 

This past week with time off for the holidays and a little time at home free of travel I've had a lot of time to reflect on this past year. I actually laughed a bit when Facebook posted "Shannon's year" a highlight of my posts from the year and it was a collection a lot like the one I'm about to post below. It was a collection of pictures that I had taken of friends, couples, pups, baby bumps, and tiny fingers and toes. My year was filled with your year and memories and I loved it. I love being able to freeze beautiful moments of time for people to look back on and remember. There is so much joy in the remembering. 

““A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered.” ”

— C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet

I am so absolutely grateful for all the people that trusted me to document some of their most important moments. It's been an incredible year full of so much beauty  and wonder and I'm so stinkin' grateful. It fills me up!

Speaking of gratitude, one of my goals for this next year is to focus on gratitude. I find myself sliding down a slippery slope when my perspective shifts away from gratitude and towards comparison and self-criticism and other negative spaces. It's no good and I want to keep myself in the healthy lens of gratitude this year. Even in the darkest of moments, there is always always always something to be grateful for.

So thank you friends for journeying with me this year and encouraging me. You give me so much to be grateful for. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can't wait to see what 2015 holds.

Here are some of my favorite images from 2014. Enjoy!

With love,

Shannon

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.”

— Melody Beattie

If you've made it this far, thank you for reliving this amazing year of photography with me. Happy New Year to you friends, cheers to another amazing year, 2015 is going to be good. I just know it. 

amazement.

when it’s over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

when it’s over, I don’t want to wonder

if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened

or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

(mary oliver)

Days like this

Oh my soul, I needed a day like this.

I am so grateful to live in a place that allows me to drive an hour in any direction and be in a place that is so stunningly beautiful. The coast, the country, the river and the mountains, all within reach. It amazes me. I'm thankful for days off and friends that are up for an adventure day. Tromping through the snow and the mountains to see beautiful sights and have good conversations and make new memories. I've always been a water girl, growing up with the Puget Sound at my back and Lake Washington and the coast nearby, I always chose the water over other landscapes. In all my years of life I am coming to the conclusion that I have not spent nearly enough time in the mountains.

It feeds my soul.  

(all of these are taken from my phone on the Trillium Lake trail loop at Mount Hood)

Orcas Island Adventures

"No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time."

-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

A couple months ago, Brian and I took a couple days off and headed up to Orcas Island for a little getaway and I am so glad that we did. Orcas Island is so charming and beautiful and downright magical. 

One thing that several people had recommended for us to see was Orcas Island Pottery. We made the trek out one morning and fell in love instantly. It might have been the beautiful grounds and the stunning view but I think what caught us both was this amazing tree house on the property. It brought me back to childhood for a moment and all the adventures my friends and I had playing in the woods and endless amounts of exploring that we did.  

I think that's one of the reasons I loved Orcas so much, everything was new and fun to explore from the cute shops and restaurants to the hikes and other islands; everything we came upon was a discovery. I love that.