2020. BRING. IT. ON.

©CherieElainePhotography2020

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU! And I mean that with my whole heart. 

Working in the corporate world behind a desk for the past year and few months has been.....confining. I work hard. I look for ways to help and grow and learn. I like projects. I like research. Every day should be a school day. Although I had a few of them, there were not enough assignments to keep my heart and head happy. But I pressed on. 

With my contract ending on January 31, 2019, I knew I needed time to decompress and reassess. The best place I know to do this is "home." Off to Wyoming I went. 

My sister's house is my safe zone. She always gives me space to be completely myself, time to relax, room to cry and enough laughter to make my face ache. We stay up too late, and get up too early, but she is my sister best friend. She is my soft place to land.

Being a professional photographer has spent a lot of time on the back burner in 2019. But a splendid opportunity presented itself. My "work" ended but my "work" also began as the year closed. I didn't end unemployed. I ended being employed in the work that causes me the greatest joy--photography. I earned a little and learned a lot. I absolutely have to include the freedom of my creative self in my days. 

I made a commitment to myself to shoot photographs 50 out of 52 weeks this year. It doesn't have to be portraits. It can be scenery, it can be buildings, it can be horses. Just get out with my camera. Fuel my calling and DO IT. 

©CherieElainePhotography2020

When I had the opportunity to head to Wyoming to ring in the new year, I did it. I needed to decompress. I had been so involved emotionally and mentally with my daily work that I lost myself in it. I quit being me. I hid. Much like the wild horse herds in Wyoming, I began to dissipate. All I did was work, and sleep, and eat, and repeat. I disappeared. 

For a long while, the wild horse population has been dwindling away and few herds have been seen in Wyoming. While I was spending a week there, reigniting my soul, I was inspired to see sanctuaries filled with hundreds of them. Horses who came home to find their freedom. 

©CherieElainePhotography2020

One of my favorite things to watch is the running of wild horses. The sound is so beautiful and powerful. They dance in a formation that only they know. When they have freedom to go, it is the most amazing sight in the world. 

These horses temporarily lost themselves, moved on, plundered by weather and humanity and change. But they are coming home and they are free.

I stood quietly with my camera, wind and snow blasting through me. It was freezing but the cold air couldn't deter me. These horses were my teachers, and they were leading me home. I watched as they ate. Although the wind had cleared snow to reveal grass easily attainable, these grand beings wanted something deeper, something more, something to fuel themselves inside that couldn't be found on the surface. With heavy hooves they cleared snow away to find the better thing, what was beyond the easily attainable to go deeper. 

As the week wound down, I learned that I was ready to go home. Week one with my camera was on the books. And I had learned a valuable lesson. 

It is good to go home. As I look for work, I will be digging deeper for the better thing, providing well for myself and not settling for what is on the surface. 

A wild horse, even foraging for food, is still a wild horse. It does not settle for what can be seen. It goes deeper. Even when it comes home. 

In 2020 my prayer is that you will go deeper. Don't settle for what's on the surface. Tap into your inner person, grab hold of the Spirit and let it roam free to find the better thing, whatever that thing is. Maybe it's many things. But dig in. 

Go deep. Get free. Come home. Create home wherever you are. 

2020. Don't sleep through it. Experience your freedom with enthusiasm. Find it deep within yourself and do that thing! 

So much love for you. Happy New Year.