Twenty Twenty

Ahhh 2020. Where do I begin?

Hurt, grief, fear, uncertainty, more fear, a global traumatic event - and I can’t quite comprehend how it will end, and what the long term repercussions of it all will be. It’s too overwhelming to think about, and heck just thinking about 2020 makes me feel exhausted.

I hope that you’re as okay as you can be. 2020 was rough.

Life changed so quickly - one week everything was normal, and then one week later everything is closed. No work (or moving to work from home), no school, no friends, no travel, no cafes.

Dan and I spent New Years Eve together, sitting around our firepit quietly contemplating it all, and how we hoped 2021 would unfold for us. He asked me if I could choose one word to describe my experience of 2020, and the only word I could come up with was “rollercoaster”. I went through some things in the first few months of 2020 (before COVID was even on the radar) that were really upsetting. And then COVID happened, and almost every system and routine I had built crumbled to dust around me which was really hard to deal with. The uncertainty of our futures, the not knowing when I could get back to work, or when things would (if ever) return to normal was really full on. Some of it feels a bit like a bad dream, especially now that life is getting a bit back to normal, sometimes I catch myself wondering if it was really as bad as I remember.

But although a lot of bad and sad things happened, there were still so many good moments that I can’t quite write off 2020 as a complete disaster. We added a new four legged baby to our family and he is joy personified, he made us smile and laugh every single day because of his goofiness. And this whole experience made me even more grateful for our bright and sunny home, and for Dan who is my best friend - being cooped up at home together and spending so much more time together was thankfully a good thing for us.

If you’re curious about what 2020 looked liked for us, I’ve been capturing a snippet of video every day (using this app) for the last few years. I finally finished putting 2020 video together, and it made me smile so much, I wanted to share it with you too. If you love dogs you can watch our pupper grow up (and it’s also really fun to watch Dan’s hair and beard grow).

Life really is all about the little moments, and how you choose to remember them.

I’m also incredibly grateful that my business has (so far) been able to survive the COVID pandemic and all the lockdowns. I’m really grateful to have had access to JobKeeper payments, and I’m even ten times more grateful to all my clients who booked up sessions with me left right and centre as we exited lockdown at the end of October.

It was really strange only working for essentially four months of last year, and even stranger to go back through the archive as some of these pre-COVID sessions in particular, quite honestly feel like an entire lifetime ago.

To all my wonderful clients, thank you for sharing a little bit of your love stories with me, it means more to me than you know.

Here are some of my favourites; I hope that scrolling through these photos brings you a little hope and joy, and inspires you to keep on acting with love and kindness for each other, because love really is what brings us, and holds us, together.

Sending hugs (via wifi),

L xo

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