The Doctor's Orders

Dear Lovely Readers,

I feel so blessed to have been as busy with work as I've been for the past many months - especially in a recession, especially in the field of photography, especially after I almost folded and got a "real" job because things were so slow last winter. I feel like a sprinter who's just finished a race and is struggling to keep her feet underneath her body as she slows down, gasping for breath, who really wants to sit down but knows she can't, not just yet.

For better or worse - or more accurately, a bit of both - I am being forced to slow down, in the form of a several-week break to deal with almost a year of increasingly horrible back pain. A few weeks ago, this was a seriously distressing thought - what kind of freelancer intentionally turns down work, especially when momentum is so good and only getting better? But thanks to York, a photographer friend, I'm now heading down a path that I feel great about, and have turned my back on the prospect of surgery in spite of the medical world's bossy prescription for it. This path of healing is going to be a lot more vague, a bit longer (I think), but I feel confident about it. For my fellow back pain sufferers... look into Tension Myoneural Syndrome (TMS). If you're like me, you'll recognize yourself immediately, and potentially avoid years of suffering.

The silver lining to this time "off" (quotation marks called for because of my longish to-do list of business-related items) is that I plan to get a foot-hold on the blog again, both umbrella love and shake the frame. I look forward to sharing images from some of my gigs and projects over the last several months.

Looking forward, too, to savoring Fall as a consolation prize for sacrificing summer to an insane workload. I mean it, people. Get your jackets and scarves, I expect to be found sitting on a porch or a patio, drinking hot toddies somewhere with you soon.