Graceful and Grateful: December 2015

So this is it, another year is almost gone! For my last post this year I wanted to put together a visual recollection of 2015, but considering how much we did/blogged this year I had a hard time narrowing it down and ended up with about 70 pics... Ops! In case you don't reach the end I decided to put the text first. This past year has been insane to say the least, we traveled to more places than I ever dreamed of visiting in my life time (let alone with 3 kids!). Photographing and sharing our adventures as a traveling family has been my creative outlet when I had no other. During 2015 I blogged as a way to focus on the positive and maintain my sanity in spite our chaotic lifestyle.

When looking at these photographs my heart soars, they evoke deep emotions both sweet and bitter. Yes, I strive to capture the gracefulness in our lives, but difficult situations are also part of life. Overall I am grateful for the countless lessons, the once in a life time experiences, the friendships we made, and those we strengthened. I am grateful for the amazing places we visited, and the incredible food we tried. But most of all I am grateful to have been able to enjoy the sweet moments, and to have had the strength to withstand the bitter ones.

This past year was all about finding our strength, for better or worse we now have thicker skin. When you “survive” very challenging situations some times you get the feeling that you can overcome ordinary problems without a sweat. Perhaps this was the biggest lesson for me this year, when faced with adversity we either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. For the coming year I hope to be able to channel this strength to stay positive and keep finding beauty in our lives, but also to set the gears in motion to make our dreams come true! Happy New Year everyone, may your days be filled with love, joy and wonder... and may you also find the strength to make your dreams come true.