2024 Reflection

In a world that urges us to move as quickly as possible, let’s not forget to keep making room to reflect. To celebrate what was while still building on what will be. To honor the growth we’ve experienced—big and small.

This past year reminded me that some lessons take time to learn, and others take courage to finally complete. It was movement: races ran in NYC, DC, VA, Oregon. It was never getting tired of a sunrise or walk. It was embracing creativity as both a gift and a practice. It was leaning into friendships that held up a mirror and were a catalyst to change. It was experiences necessary for change and finding meaning in the seemingly ordinary moments.

It was creative expansion: following the seed of an idea, time going unnoticed in the act of creating, the liberation found in letting yourself be inspired.

It was celebrating people; people who make me smile in the grocery store when they pop up in my mind. People who bring meaning to all of this, who make it all worthwhile. 

It was honoring joy, pain, and change as part of the same journey. The closing of a chapter & start of a new one, drawing me right in the heart of what I feel most passionate about. It was learning to slow down; embracing the marathon that is life. It was experiencing a new facet of grief, showing me a glimmer of the good that is yet to come. 

It was creating. And that is what I urge you to do in this fast, speed-driven world. Create. Even if the end result feels imperfect. Carve out time to write, photograph, paint, record, move, whatever your form of creation is. Not every effort needs to be shared, and not every creation needs an audience. Sometimes the act of creating—just for the sake of it—is the reward.

The photos I've taken throughout the year bring me joy not because of the composition of them, but because they remind me of what I was feeling in each moment. A myriad of small, beautiful moments. It’s always in these same small moments that make up the entirety of a life well-lived.