Lately I've been thinking about success. And unfortunately it's not been in a good way. More like in a "I'm never going to make it, everyone else is beating me to it" kind of way. It got to the point last week where I wanted to leave work, go hide somewhere, and cry. The same thoughts kept running through my head over and over Friday night. They went a lot like this:

"Every body else is finding success."

"I guess my work just isn't good enough."

"No one is ever going to even see my work, let alone care about it."

"There's just no point."

I watched a tv show on my computer in bed, and then went to sleep with these thoughts echoing in my head. However, Saturday morning I woke up and read the quote for that day from my DailyQuote App and I was immediately reminded of my Heavenly Father's love for me. The quote was this:

"Whatever you want in life, other people are going to want it too. Believe in yourself enough to accept the idea that you have an equal right to it."

-Diane Sawyer

I don't believe in coincidences. Heavenly Father watches out for us, and he cares about the details of our lives. The intimate, sometimes painful, and heavy moments that make up the story of our lives. But that quote was exactly what I needed to read. So now I'm reminding myself, and anyone else out there who has a dream: it's never too late, it's never useless, and there is ALWAYS a reason to follow your dream.

So this is me getting back up, trying again, falling, failing, and getting back up again. And again. And again. Because there will be hard moments, and there will be times where I just want to cry and give up. It's part of life and we all experience those feelings and heartaches. But that doesn't mean what we're pursuing isn't good and isn't worthy of our devotion. It just means the reward will be worth fighting for.

Today I was feeling pretty frustrated with my circumstances. I've been an administrative assistant for just over a year and half now, and some days that sits heavily with me. I love who I work with and who I work for, but in my heart, I know I am not a secretary. This may sound very spoiled of me to say, as there are jobs that are much less appealing to have, but I think... I know... everyone has those days, when, despite everything they are blessed with, they feel down. It's part of life.

I drove home in the rain, enjoying how calm it made me feel and when I got home I promptly snuggled up in bed for a few minutes. I eventually made my way to my little office in the sunroom (although I think the term nightroom would be more fitting this time of year). My heart sang when I opened up Lightroom and saw these pictures waiting for me to edit them. It was like the little spot of joy and happiness I had been looking for all day, bogged down as I was at work.

I didn't do much in the way of editing these, other than warming them up a bit. I get so caught up in making sure all my other settings are correct that I never adjust my white balance while shooting. I consistently come out of a shoot with cooler toned images than in reality, so I like to warm all my images up in post-processing. I loved the simplicity of these images, though, and Kari's infectious smile. I told her to twirl a bit while I was shooting, and she did not let me down. I think she twirled for a good ten minutes straight, which was just adorable.

Anyway, I hope these images bring just a little bit of warmth and sunshine into your day. And who knows, maybe they've inspired you to go twirl around a bit and remember what it's like to be a kid again.

Today is your day to

dance lightly with life.

Sing wild songs of adventure.

Soar your spirit,

unfurl your joy.

Jonathan Lockwood Huie