If we’re being honest, we struggle with perspective. Getting caught up with what’s next instead of what’s right in front of us.
So, today, we’re celebrating the small victories.
The last 10 weeks have been a blur. Like a slow motion scene in a movie. Where time feels stopped. Yet it’s racing past us at the same time. We’ve been crisscrossing the country, from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas to Atlanta, stopping home in Scottsdale (or Phoenix for our non-Arizonan friends) to shoot engagements and weddings and catch our breath in between. It’s been a grind, for sure, but that’s wedding season. There’s no escaping it. We’ve survived on coffee, adrenaline, and, to be honest, a lot of prayer. Averaging 4-6 hours of sleep for almost 70 days, working long hours, and eating whatever’s around is a recipe for disaster, namely sickness, but we’ve avoided it and remained healthy, and we are so, so thankful for that. That is a victory. We woke up this morning, on our fourth wedding day in eight days, looked at each other, checked for signs of illness that didn’t exist, and thanked God for answering our 10-week-long prayer: Lord, please protect our health. You can’t use us if we’re sick. Please give us the strength to love people and serve them well.
And He has.
Today’s our last wedding for an entire month — which, after this grueling pace, is a welcomed rest. We’re taking the month of May to lighten our load and do some long-term strategic thinking about our business, to map out the next steps, to dream bigger, scarier dreams than we’ve ever dreamed before, the kind that put a little bit of fear in us — and a whole lot of faith — because we know we can’t do them alone. We, of course, have some ideas that have, until now, just been theoretical we’ll-get’to-them-when-we-have-time ideas, but we’ve been intentional to set aside next month to make them practical. We’re not prepared to share them just yet — because we don’t know exactly what shape or form they’ll take. They’re still in the infancy stage, the development phase. And, like the emperor said in Gladiator, we can only whisper it, because “anything more than a whisper and it will vanish… it’s that fragile.” But, as soon as we’re ready to make an announcement, we will. We promise. You’ll be the first to know.
As hard as it’s been to wait for May to come, to get the chance to slow down, prune our branches, and create space to grow, we’re also enjoying the ride and taking each minute in stride. It’s easy for competitive doers, like us, to only look forward and never look around, much less back; but for as much as we’ve always got an eye on what’s next, on what’s ahead, it’s just as important to celebrate all the little victories along the way, because that, friends, is fuel for the journey.
Photo Credit: Alison Mish
