” Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

– Neal Donald Walsche

I have been thinking about these words a lot in the last few weeks. I am trying to push myself out of my many different levels of comfort zones.  In the last year, since the accident with my hand, I have spent so much of that time focused on my physical healing with multiple surgeries and thrice weekly physical therapy sessions.  It took up (and continues to take up) an awful lot of time and didn’t leave room for much else.  It bums me out when I think about it because I really should have been using some of that time to work on getting my business going but I just kept thinking “no, no…after this surgery or that surgery or just a little longer in therapy and I’ll have my hand 100% back and then I will get to work on everything else.” Well, at my last doctor’s appointment I was informed that there would never be 100%, maybe 50% (and its a big maybe) but never 100.  Hard pill to swallow.  It sucks. I’m bummed about it – but – I know it  could have been so much worse!  So now, here I am, trying to move forward and accept my new “normal”.

Speaking of new normals…just a few weeks ago, I chose to step out of another comfort zone when I switched from my Canon 5d to a Nikon D700 camera. This change has proven to be more more difficult than I anticipated.  I have gone from this old, comfortable friend that I knew every detail about to what feels like a complete and total stranger.  I am struggling…a lot and debating on whether or not I should sell it. I am hoping that perhaps it is just growing pains and given time and practice, I will know this camera like the back of my hand ( the good hand that is).

When the new camera arrived, I was visiting with my friend Deb and her family in Tampa, FL.  I was lucky enough to have her awesome kiddos as models for two whole weeks, while I tried to work out the kinks with myself or this new camera — I am not sure which. A lot of the time I just found myself frustrated because the buttons were in the wrong spot, the focus was off, the color was icky, etc. But then at other times, I was proud of myself for moving away from the familiarity of simply capturing a beautiful portrait and focusing instead on capturing the beautiful moments in my days with them. And I’m so grateful to have had so many of those moments with Deb and her family. Thank you dear friend….for everything.