Living Eulogy Series // Telling Them NOW.

If you were to ask me what my vision in life is, I would tell you that I want people to realize that they are important. I want people to realize that their stories here on earth matter.

I'm a photographer, and I've had the amazing privilege of photographing stories of people in all walks of life. Some of these walks have resulted in heartbreak. I remember one photo session I had done with a family... they were such a precious family! They were laughing through their entire photo session and they were just having a genuinely good time together. I knew this family was one that had a whole lot of love for one another. The dad made me chuckle, as he seemed a bit more of a stoic type of fellow. But his adult sons and wife cracked him up time and time again. The smiles... oh, the smiles that happened during that photo session... it was something beautiful.

I received an email a few months after I'd photographed this family. A close friend of theirs was wondering if he could have permission to use some of his graphic design skills on one of my photos, and print it out for the family... as the dad had just passed away from cancer. Of course I said, "Yes! Please do!" I was so heartbroken to hear about this situation... and it made me realize how important what I do is. I've heard time and time again about how the family photos at a wedding are sometimes the last photos that people will have together.

I'm not here to promote my business, that's not my reasoning for this post at all. I'm simply writing this because I've realized how important and short life is. We have certain people with us for only so long. Whether they pass away, or it's just a season of life that they're around, people impact our lives forever. Yet, many of them have no idea how they've touched our hearts, or how much they've impacted our life.

It is because of this that I'm going to be starting a series called 'Living Eulogy.'

So often, people never hear how important they are. They never realize that the one time they stopped by, just out of the blue, just made your day. Or that the one time they smiled and asked you how you were doing, it was just what you needed. Or the amount of time and hours they've spent on the phone with you, that you needed every one of those moments.

Mondays will be my Living Eulogy post days. Mondays can be a day that drags a bit. They are the start to the work week and people can be a little reluctant to get back to work. I want people to feel a bit of inspiration on Mondays.

I will be writing posts, not in order of importance to me, but prayerfully. I'll be sending a handwritten letter of the same post to whomever it is that I've written the post about.

Whether anyone besides the person I'm writing about reads the post or not, I don't care. I'm writing these publicly, because that is how a eulogy is done. But this is a living eulogy. This is a time for me to say just how important someone is to me. What they have done in my life. Why they matter. The difference they are making.

But I'm doing this with a challenge.

I want to challenge you to tell people what they mean. Don't wait until someday, when you're at that person's funeral, telling all of their loved ones. Tell them now.

Until next time,
Jenny