thankful thursday 25
My long hiatus from blogging deserves to be resurrected for a "thankful thursday". I can't tell you where the fall has gone, or even where the year went; time just flew by. It seems pretty good to reflect on everything's that been happening to me. Without further ado, I am thankful for...
Lance's job. When I was in college it never occurred to me that I'd have a job where I could travel; it never crossed my mind, and if it had I probably would have dismissed the idea of having that kind of opportunity. Funnily enough I ended up with an unconventional job that afforded me the luxury of traveling a lot for both fun and work. Right around the time Lance and I got married, though, I was growing tired of traveling. I spent those seven years when I was single traveling every month. I loved it and all, but I was getting older and enjoying being a homebody. I was excited to settle down with Lance and save my traveling for visits home and occasional work trips. Turns out marrying Lance is the main reason I'm traveling nowadays. Thanks to him and his job, we've gone on several trips (like the Grand Canyon!), with a big one coming up! I'm so thankful his job has given us so many opportunities.
Editing. I've always loved editing. I like to edit when I'm stressed or sad. It acts as a wonderful decompressor for me. I'm so thankful for those editing classes in college and learning lightroom when it first came out. It brings me so much joy to edit, especially for other photographers. Recently I've gotten some new clients and have been working with some amazingly talented photographers. I love the challenge of it all. And with the big move, I'm still trying to grow my Alabama client base, so I appreciate all the editing work I've been getting.
Knitting. Since high school I've been knitting here and there. At some point I exhausted all the scarves I could ever want and started selling my excess scarves. I usually reserved my knitting to the winter months whenever I was watching a movie or bored. This year I joined a knitting group and it opened up so many possibilities. Recently I've loved experimenting, learning and practicing my knitting skills. I even finished two blankets (one was queen-sized!) and countless more scarves. Knitting can be very mathematical and all about problem solving, so I feel like I get a mental workout figuring out how to read new patterns and make my own. I would have never tackled a blanket or these new techniques I learned without this knitting group. And thanks to my long talks with Lance I knit a lot. I feel so accomplished with all the little projects I finished and techniques I learned.
People. I always wanted to live somewhere where I knew people in town, and I have that here. I'm friends with my coffee people and my smoothie people and my librarians. I like living in a community that feels like community, where people will stop and talk to you about your day. It seems so cliche, but having lived in the Bay Area where I routinely ignored crazy people on the street, it's nice to live somewhere where I don't always have to do that.
Marriage. Of course I have to put something about being married to Lance on this list. I am so thankful for Lance; for every flaw and imperfection and bad habit I have he's still always willing to forgive and love me. I never thought being married would be easy, but I honestly never had a gauge as to how much work it would be or how incredibly selfish I actually was. But that's what marriage does, I suppose, it highlights the weaknesses in people, while also bringing out the goodness. I'm so thankful to be in this marriage, which is constantly teaching me to be a better person and pushing me to overcome my faults, while building up my strengths. There's nothing like knowing you have your best friend to live through life's ups and downs.
DC 3 Abandoned Plane, Sólheimasandur, Iceland. June 9, 2016 | Canon 5d markii 16-35mm