December 22, 2015

Happy Solstice and a bright year ahead!

The Teton mountain range in the winter covered in snow.I had a plan for yesterday. My plan was to take time to pause and reflect on my last year and really think deeply about what it is that I want to cultivate in the year to come. Great plan. But at about noon, I found myself still plugging away at work on the computer and finding it harder and harder to pull away (a common predicament that I find myself in as I really do love my work and I… ALWAYS… JUST… WANT… TO… GET… ONE… MORE… THING… DONE… and as you know there is ALWAYS more to get done.)

Luckily, I have a handsome husband to gently prod me in the right direction. So I left my work unfinished and we headed out for a quick hot chocolate/bagel date (he often bribes me with food) and to hike Teton pass for some powder turns. He sold me on the idea of ditching work to go skiing with the promise of hot chocolate and by pointing out that we would have lots of time to think and reflect on the long hike up. In retrospect, I can’t say I had any revelations on the hike up as it is a 45 minute to an hour hike pretty much straight up in ski boots where much of my focus is usually taken up with just thinking about putting one foot in front of the other (basically like being on a StairMaster made out of snow and set to the most difficult setting.) But it felt amazing to be outside and we had untracked powder turns the whole way back down to our truck. Powder turns are always good for morale ;-) And I made it home just in time to turn around and head into town to the winter solstice workshop I had signed up for at my favorite local yoga studio Akasha Yoga.

The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year, meaning every day from here on out until the summer solstice the days will be getting longer (Hooray! More light!) It is also a very potent time to go inward and dig around a bit. To think about the things in your life that are serving you and perhaps identify some parts that are not too. At the tail end of my busiest year in my photography business ever, and just when I am finally coming back up for air after a whirlwind few weeks of holiday orders and last minute portrait shoots, I initially thought back over the past year and all I could remember was work. Work, work, work. Fun and inspiring work for sure, but for one of the first times since probably high school I haven’t gone on any long extended travel trips…. And I LOVE to travel. I am the type of person who remembers the different years of my life by what big trip or trips I went on that year, and here I was, a year without any extended travel. But when I pulled out my 2015 calendar I saw lots of little trips, workshops, great music, festivals, and visits with my family and friends scribbled in the boxes as I flipped through the months (Yes, I am still a fan of good old paper and pencil ;-) And as I shifted my thinking and focused on what I had gotten to do over the past year, I could feel myself filling up with gratitude and all the sudden my 2015 was looking and feeling pretty darn good.

So here’s to a great 2015 and bright year ahead. I’ll let you know in my next post what I decided yesterday that I am going to be focusing on in the coming year between my hot chocolate/bagel date, skiing and solstice yoga class :-)

 

Hannah Hardaway Wedding Photographer

 

 

 

 

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