(UPDATED!) Back with a Vengeance

After seven years of being away from photography and doula work within the Kansas City area, I decided to pull out my cameras for a few trips with some of my favorite groups of women–some of the most talented and strongest groups of women I have yet to meet during my lifetime. Between conquering breast cancer, business start-ups, medical work, social work, counseling in both the private and public sectors, administration at one of the top high schools in the country, and of course the hardest job in the world, being a mom, these women just kick ass. They embody the definition of what a “lifelong learner” is, which is what I constantly preach to my students and my kids to aspire to be. And I just feel like there are not many people out there like that! I am constantly inspired by women who take life by the shirt collar, look it straight in the face and say, watch me soar.

To help explain my absence, I am going to tell a bit of a much needed backstory for a moment to all of my previous clients and friends. After going through chemotherapy, surgery, and immunotherapy in 2020, I know what it is like to look Death in the face, straight on. Nothing has been harder than that so far in my life. However, I am living a different life now than I was, in a better way. When you face certain challenges, it is amazing how perspectives can change and you begin to see the sky, the moon, the leaves, in a whole new light as if you have never seen them before now–truly, “the present” becomes more real than it’s ever been before.

I remember when I first got the cancer call. “Mary” said those horrifying words that everyone fears, regardless of your age, “you have Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.” I proceeded to start breathing heavy, and she then recommended that I go do something mindless, like clean the house. That did not happen, of course. Instead, after calling my mom and my husband, I went on a walk. I noticed the ridged edges of the bark on the trees, the shapes of the leaves, and the women driving by on their phones in their fancy cars. I thought, who are they talking to? Why didn’t they get the call? Why do they get to be a mom and I might get that taken away from me? Life needed to stop. And it needed to stop for me, but it didn’t. It kept going. People lived their lives all around me. I got to see the busyness of the world from a new view. From a view that seemed unfair. My final diagnosis was Stage 1a as it had not gone to my lymph nodes yet. But, as my oncologist said, they threw the whole kitchen sink at me because of my younger age.

Fast-forward four years, I survived the six rounds of chemo, had surgery, and did fourteen more rounds of immunotherapy. Just this year, 2024, I am starting to feel more energy, more normal energy. I feel great actually. I feel like I want to do all the things. The things that one might call your “bucket list”. The bucket list does not seem to get real until Death knocks at your door.

So, I am ready to take my business up to the next level. Ready to come back strong and with a vengeance. People is what I love. People is who I serve. And people is what makes us feel human in every way. There is nothing that can replace the human connection. And as my yoga teacher said in class this morning, “your body is the only thing that makes us human.” Let’s take care of it, and take care of one another as we never truly know how much time we have together on this planet. I was afraid before to do anything that resembled my previous life before cancer. I wanted to wipe the slate clean and start over. But what I have learned and grown to appreciate is that each experience builds us up and brings us to where we are today, and today is all that matters. What we do from this moment on is the most important thing. And to me that is so exciting, and freeing.

Hope to connect with you soon, and I sure am glad to be back.

Also, enjoy a few pics of some of the things I’ve been up to these past four years.