TRY, TRY AGAIN

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." 

Have you all heard this before? My elementary gym teacher said it to me the most. I was not born athletic. Nothing about my body came easily to me.

The whole concept of trying often eludes me. 

There is a whole lot of talk about choosing a word for 2021 that describes or inspires you. 

In September, my daughter gave me a bracelet with the word "Thrive" stamped on it. I wear it always. She felt it was an important word for me to embrace entering my 57th year. 

Absolutely yes! Thrive is a GREAT word to take into 2021. 

On January 2, at the neighborhood girls group, we were all encouraged to choose a card from a deck of inspirational quotes as we were leaving that would carry us into the new year. I'm telling you, goosebumps. I shivered as I looked at these words: 

©CherieElainePhotography2021

#truthbomb Danielle Laporte.com 

Just like you, 2020 was a horrific challenge to self-worth. My income changed, my health was in jeopardy, my career fell flat, and I had a matter of weeks to move from my very comfortable home. Sadness became ruler. And who is responsible for that? Yours truly. Two words, radical responsibility, seemed to make a lot of sense if I was going to thrive!

And then......last night..... Words jumped off a page and saturated my thoughts. 

     "Nobody knows what you can do. They won't know unless you show them. And you know what? You won't know either 

unless you risk trying."

                             --Dian Griesel, @SilverDisobedience

Whoa......!!!!!

My word: TRY

The end of the year came with a couple of semi-big blows to my photography career. Maybe they weren't big. They FELT big. And they challenged my head, my heart, all that I knew about myself. I felt confused and defeated. I felt like..... those naysayers? They might be right about me. 

Let me tell you, right here and now, I am answering that with a hell noooooo. 

No one knows what God has put in the hearts of man. No one knows the call He puts in each and every one of us. No one knows what He is going to do in the hearts of those He loves! 

2020 brought with it some serious lung damage, so many medications, and 50 pounds of weight gain. Somewhere along the line, I got myself in gear and said no more. I weaned off of most of my steroidal medication, I started eating right and working hard to strengthen a beaten up body, and started taking radical responsibility so I could thrive. 

Then the heartache of setting my camera aside. "Maybe they are right," said the feeble voice inside of me. 

TRY. No one will know if I don't try. I won't know if I don't keep trying. And God put this gift in me so I don't really have the right to ignore it at all. And it isn't finished. It is still progressing His way. 

All of these words are beautiful for 2021. 

1. Thrive
2. Take radical responsibility
3. Try, try, and try again.           

Are you ready? 

I love you.

P.S. By the way....sometimes it takes seeing God's paintbrush in the sky to awaken us. Let me just share my first photograph of 2021, taken this morning, January 5, as the sun awakened. So thankful.

©CherieElainePhotography2021