Photo Challenge: Look Up//A Dedication

This post is dedicated to my wonderful friend, Brittany. 

Sometimes The Daily Post posts photo challenges that could not be more perfect. Sometimes they post a challenge that fits something I just recently took a photo of or they post a challenge and I come across something within the week that is a total lightbulb moment. This week is one of those weeks. The photo challenge this past week was “Look Up“. When I read this challenge, I thought for a moment and knew exactly what photo I wanted to use because I had recently saw it in photos I was going through.

On Monday, I wrote and posted a new YouTube video from my day trip last month to Longwood Gardens. There was a very pretty gazebo overlooking a pond. From afar you could see that the top of the gazebo was iron or metal-work, but it’s not until you step inside and look up that you notice the intricacies and beauties of the design and scrollwork. It is beautiful.

Sure, from afar the gazebo looked pretty, but it’s not until you take the time to look up and not just out that you can take in its beauty in its entirety.

I mentioned above that sometimes the photo challenges seemed to fit what I’m doing or what I’ve seen perfectly. But this week, it also relates to how I’m feeling. It’s been a tough week. On Monday, I mentioned that I came home from vacation to some very sad personal news. If you have been following me for a while, you may remember I wrote a post back in the fall about a fundraiser I attended for my close friend Brittany and her battle with cancer. It is with a heavy heart that I share that my dear friend has passed away after a year-long battle. The service was yesterday was beautiful. So this challenge takes on a second meaning for me, because as I have grieved and reminisced with our friends and her family I have thought to myself to look up, in more than one way. Look up, because it’s what Brittany would say to me if she were here. She was tough and she would tell us to keep our chins up and stop crying. Then, I think to look up because although I can no longer see her on this earth, I know she will always be with me and watching over me from above.

So I’m dedicating this post to Brittany. A good friend, taken too soon. I will never forget our hilarious conversations or the crazy times we had. Most importantly, I won’t forget what a good friend you were for many years. You will forever be in my heart and I know you are up above smiling down on me, watching over us all, and trying to shield us from harm. Just like when we went to New Orleans together and we came up with a code word/phrase for if a creeper started bothering us when we went out at night. “Let’s say ‘caterpillar’ if someone is bothering us. And if it gets really bad we’ll say ‘The butterfly is out of the cocoon, the butterfly is out of the cocoon!’ ”  <3