How considering a tear off calendar reminded me the importance of my voice

I’ve been thinking about getting a desk calendar for 2025. The kind where you rip off a page each day containing some funny joke, inspiring quote, or word of the day. In reality, there is no way this makes sense for me- with bicoastal living, an ever growing travel addiction, and an aversion to unnecessary waste. And still, I keep coming back to the idea if only to remind myself to take one moment each day to consider that singular day.

You see- it seems that it’s moving towards the end of November. Another year has passed in the blink of an eye and while I continued my journey to live in the moments, the days themselves often run together. As I’ve been considering this, I was reminded of one of the things that I most love about photography.

“Photography is the art of frozen time... the ability to store emotion and feelings within a frame.” - Meshack Otieno

My photo catalog is organized by day. Not every day is accounted for- I’ve yet to fully completed a strict 365 project. But many, many days are. Sometimes it’s a poorly lit snap on my phone of something yummy I ate for lunch. Other days there are 500 photographs of birds in flight.

Through the act of taking photographs, I’ve found a way to honor my day.

When I was a young photographer, I was dedicated to blogging. I loved the way I could tell the complete story of my photographs, I loved feeling like I had a voice alongside of a vision. As I grew in my photography and social media displaced personal websites, blogging fell further and further down my to-do list. “Schedule Instagram” ranked much higher than sitting down to write. It’s taken me awhile to realize that while I’ve continued to share my vision, my voice seems to have quieted.

With these thoughts and realizations, I’ve reminded myself of how much I enjoy pairing words and images. And with a seemingly endless backlog of images and stories, I decided to go back to the beginning and starting writing. I hope you’ll enjoy these shares, but even if I’m talking only to myself, I’ll be finding a way to honor the days of my life.