A simple goal.

"Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've returned from an intense four days of learning and quality time with girlfriends. I am on fire. The year of 2012 continues to prove to be one for the record books. I returned home with a renewed sense of my ultimate purpose in life... which is to build relationships. Ultimately everything in my life points to that simple goal. My faith in God pushes me to that. The struggles I've faced prepared me for that. The transformation of strangers to kindred spirits encourages me towards that simple goal. Even my profession as a photographer (and traveler) is a platform for building relationships.

While in Vegas I was contacted by two men of my past. Jolted by the inexplicable coincidence of their timing and the stark contrast of their attitudes towards me, I was thrown into an overwhelmed state. One man tearing me down with every desperate word; the other building me up, sensitive to each nuance in our conversation. I felt alive to talk to him again, the feelings and memories surging back into my heart. It's incredible to experience love over time, finding that in giving it space to grow it flourishes. And when it comes into your heart again you've found it to be transformed and matured. I experienced that in him, and now he waits for it in me, giving me that same space and a caring willingness to wait until I can come around in my own time. Knowing the faith he has in me will endure.

And I find so often a similar love in my friends. Friends who lovingly call me out when I'm wrong, yet are relentless in their support and encouragement. These ladies I spent four days with are no different.  They reminded me to inspire those in my life... day after day of the amazing life God has for them, of their untapped potential, of their amazing worth, of all of it.  And even though I also learned the importance, even necessity, to cut out those who are toxic and draining in my life, I will continue to invest in my relationships with those around me. Longing to both give and find inspiration.

"The greatest gift is a portion of thyself." -Ralph Waldo Emerson