The anniversary dance..

My brain works in a strange way... I can take just about any story or situation and learn from it. I almost always look deeper into things to see what I can take from it and carry with me throughout my life. Living my life absorbing everything around me, the people and sights and sounds and smells,  has just been the way I've always been. So sometimes I might find something in a story that someone else might not. That's where this blog came from...

My wedding photographer job is so fun! I get to meet a lot of different people and see a lot of different things. I've stood around the dance floor capturing more moments of people dancing than I can even count. I've watched many brides and grooms dance their first dance and watched many dad's dance with their daughter on her wedding day, it's all very beautiful. This past weekend the DJ did the Anniversary Dance. I'm sure many of you have seen this. They call out all the married couples to the dance floor and as the song plays, the DJ starts calling out the amount of years being married and as the song plays, couples leave the dance floor, to only leave the couple married the longest dancing on the dance floor alone. I've seen this at many weddings but this one hit me a little different. As the DJ was counting up the years, the couple just kept dancing, little by little the dance floor became almost empty until it was just them. The couple has been married for 63 years. I cried. It was one of the most beautiful sights I've seen at a wedding. How sweet and beautiful as they held onto each other and moved together across the dance floor. I started thinking about their journey and the things they might've faced throughout those 63 years. How many times they've failed each other, disapointed each other. How many financial challenges they might've been through. Have they had to face losing a child? I don't know their story, but I am sure they have one to tell. I started to think about the challenges we face. In my opinion, most of our challenges are little compared to being committed to a marriage for 63 years. But yet, how easily we give up. A little challenge comes our way and we so easily just throw in the towel. We've lost the ability to fight through things. Or better yet, we just don't care as much as we think we do. I find that most people I talk to say that they CAN'T do something but in reality they can. They just don't feel like it. They don't feel like sticking with something through those times it's not as easy. Where is your fight? When you want something bad enough.. what stops you from getting to it? Why do you quit on yourself yet you'd never quit on someone you love?  We look at people, that in our opinion are successful, for me like this couple that danced alone that night on the dance floor. And we don't always see the challenges they might have faced we only see the success they have. The truth is, we all face challenges that could give us a perfectly good reason to quit. But quiting should not be an option. Johnathan asked us the other day what divorce meant. We told him it's when one or both grown ups quit in their marriage. He said, "Oh! Well that won't happen to us because Latiak's never quit!" I want to encourage you.. don't quit! Don't quit at the things you have set your mind on. Once you decide that quiting is not an option for you.. you'll keep going until you reach your finish line.

1, 2, 3... JUMP!

Have you ever tried jumping on a park bench with both feet at the same time? Last fall, Robbie and I and the kids were playing at a park near our house. That summer I had done several weeks of a boot camp and felt pretty tough. So here I am, Rob has his little video recorder set on his phone and I am going to prove to him that I can jump up on this bench, I can do this! The whole video is of me attempting but being a chicken and not going through with it. Well, yesterday the kids and I went back to the same park and I passed my phone to Jack and pressed record, I counted 1,2 and 3 and jumped right up on that same bench I chickened out on last fall. I didn't even have to think twice. Of course, I jumped it several times because I felt so hard core and I sent the video to Rob just to brag ;) . To some this might not be much of anything.. but to me, it was just a nice reminder of how far I've come. I don't believe that it has much to do with my physical strength but more to do with my mental strength. Isn't that how life is though? The more we press through the stronger we get. When we can't do it at first, it doesn't mean we've failed. It's when we quit, that's when we've failed. Life is all about over coming challenges that come our way. Whether is has to do with our jobs or our relationships.. whether it's challenges that you face while you're trying to lose weight or finish school. Unfortunately there really is no easy way  to reach your goals or accomplish your dreams. It takes hard work, commitment and perserverance. Those quick easy fixes that some might find, will only last a short time. It's what we learn in the process of getting us to our goal, that sticks. That's what helps us maintain our goals and helps us over come the next challenge that we'll face. I am a big believer in what we set our mind too, we'll get. Start small.. what's something you can challenge yourself to do from now until the end of the month? Write it down, keep a calendar of the days you're working on it. See your accomplishments as you reach them. My friend and boot camp instructor, Debbie, tells me this, "It doesn't get easier, it's that you get better and stronger!" That's so true.. you get better. When you refuse to quit and you keep going.. the better and stronger you get. That park bench didn't get lower I just got better. 1, 2, 3... JUMP! NOW!