You know how sometimes you can just get burnt out? Tired of doing the mundane tasks of life, anxious over things that wouldn’t normally stress you out, and generally uninterested and focused on the things around you? Well…I think I hit that point a couple weeks ago. I have been uninspired and not totally present in my life for a couple weeks now. It’s been hard to engage, knowing that a towering pile of tasks feels ready to crush me at any moment. I’m people oriented, and these tasks were threatening to drown me.

Today my one of good friends asked me to take a headshot for her. She’s part of a church plant going on in Pulaski, a small town right next to our small town of Radford. She’s the children’s ministry leader and just needed something simple. So, we went outside my house into the road and snapped about 15 images. It was easy (she is super beautiful of course) and quick. We loaded the images onto the iMac and searched for one to use. I offhandedly commented that it was the most fun I’d had shooting in a long time. We found the right image (below) and she headed off to the hospital for night shift to save lives or something. (seriously, what can’t she do? she’s a nurse too!)

Now I’m stuck here reevaluating. Maybe its the most fun I’ve had shooting in a long time because I haven’t shot in a LONG time! Capturing people through photography makes my soul feel alive, and I’ve totally been neglecting that passion for the last month. I remember being frustrated a couple weeks ago because I felt uninspired. But, seriously? I hadn’t even made time to get inspired. I let life get in the way.

Now, don’t get me wrong, life had a lot of good things in store in the last month. It’s a busy season in campus ministry right now and that is completely okay. Times like that will come. There will also be slower times. But this last month for me has been a lesson that I should never let the things that get me excited and passionate and exhilarated take a backseat. There are some things that I should just make time for. And for me, spending time making people feel beautiful is one of them. I hope this is the last significant time period that goes by where I neglect one of the things that makes me feel most alive.

No matter how busy life seems, there is time for activities that bring you joy. I pray that I will time manage for the rest of the semester in a way that not only honors my relationships with God and people, but honor my passions.

ps: thanks for Brittany for being gorg and inspiring me today!