on the feeling of emptiness

honeybee and lavender July 2016

Maybe. Just maybe. This great emptying of yourself....this forcing of you to come to terms with all the weight you’ve been carrying....is much much bigger than you think. You’ve been carrying everything you need not carry for so long that you haven’t left room for your soul.

So this great painful emptying is as it should be. Just the emptying process of everything you don’t need.

You have your dreams but you haven’t left room. So you must be emptied if you want your dreams to come true.

They say you cannot pour from an empty cup. And neither can you pour your dreams from a cup so full of carrying everything it need not carry.

Can you bear the emptiness long enough to heal....to fill again with your dreams?

Oh I know it hurts. Like having your bones exposed. But you need not keep covering with the scraps you’ve had. Build your dreams. It’s cold out. But from what cup do you want to pour? Your dreams? Your loves? Or the same rhythms you’ve been doing that haven’t satisfied?

Maybe. Just maybe. The universe IS standing with you. Believe it.

Feel those fears. Feel that pain. Feel the anger of the road that lead to your emptying. Feel it. Know it. Walk it. Stop resisting it. And let it too, empty from you. You need not carry all of this. You really need not carry it.

Are the expectations of unkind people really how you want your cup filled? This is a new path. Let it be new. And dare to believe that this great emptying is so that you may indeed be filled again....so that you might truly pour out the good and kindness and beauty that hasn’t had quite as much room as it had before.

Be empty for a moment. Heal those deep scars that have been covered so long. Heal. Restore. And let your dreams actually come true.

- Amber Lianne, November 2, 2017

a love like Carl and Ellie

Have you ever seen the movie, "Up"? When I asked Joey and Mitchie what some of their favorite quotes were, I was told how much they both admired the love of Carl and Ellie from the movie Up. And honestly, after getting the chance to know them even better, I can definitely say that that love fits these two so well. I met Mitchie over a year ago, and as both of our jobs were changing, we were able to stay in contact through social media. I had the incredible privilege of doing photos of the two of them a little over a week ago. I kept thinking as they told me about them and I got to see them interact that their love was one that was such an incredibly beautiful story. 

To quote Mitchie directly: "For one Christmas, Joey painted me a world map with their chairs and on the back he wrote, 'Wherever it may be, my Paradise Falls is wherever you are.' "

This is love. This is one of the beautiful ways that love looks. Their love makes my heart glow. Thank you for sharing your beautiful story with me, Joey and Mitchie! (Oh, and for the record, thank you to everyone who helped me choose these final images! I was having an impossible time deciding!)