Welcome to Hither & Hold!
Hither & Hold Launch
Welcome welcome WELCOME! I am so ELATED to have you here, on my blog, for the launch of my new website Hither & Hold.
It's been a long journey for me to get to this place, and I am so excited that you're here with me, celebrating today!
Four years ago yesterday (ironically) I launched my first website. Pink and brown flowers with my handwriting incorporated in the design. A small announcement in the middle of the night. Back then, I was scared. Of this idea I could actually DO this. Of putting myself out there. To being true to myself.
It's been a long road since then. Moving cross country and back, a baby, job transition, loss and gains. But that small seed of what sparked all this to begin has grown and bloomed. I can honestly say, Hither & Hold is what I have always had in me but never knew what it was or how to communicate it.
What I have always known is, I wanted to tell stories. I'm that child growing up that always got excessive talking marked on her report card. Who wrote short stories fearlessly, and made copies for her relatives to read at Easter and Thanksgiving. So when I found a camera in my hand, it became a natural extension of my storytelling.
The stories I tell with my camera have meaning beyond the frame. A special gift between to the beholder...to look at a photograph and draw close to that moment and thousands of others that led up to it. When we moved away from Chicago in 2011, my 25 year old self clung to a photograph of us taken the week before we moved. I clung to the story of my life up until that point. I clung to the plot lines, twists and turns that had brought me to that place. And I held it dear. It helped me grieve. It helped me find peace. It helped me find joy again, because I knew if we could be so happy there, we could be so happy here again. That all the things that brought us up to that moment were within us to be brought up again...it was hope...possibility...love.
The word hither means 'to or toward this place'. It came to me in a sacred moment. Pen on the page, Hither was scribbled between the lines. I didn't even know what it really meant, so I looked it up in the dictionary.
'To this place'
Pairing that idea with photographs, I knew immediately 'place' it was referring to because I had been there often. I knew a companion to the word hither was hold. Because that's what we do. We draw close and hold those moments dear. Moments within seasons of faithfulness. Seasons of peace. Seasons of grieving. Seasons of change.
I always had this fear: "I don't want to just be another 'lady with a camera' - but I know now that is what I am. A woman with a camera in my hands, and that camera is how I will do the work I've been given here on earth - to reveal the sacredness of seasons of life, and make markers in the journey for you to hither & hold.
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I invite you to explore. To click into all the pages and read the words that have been brewing in me for so long. And stay tuned this week - TWO amazing giveaways are coming! More details will be here on the blog, and on social media, so please! Follow Hither & Hold on Instagram & Facebook, and sign up to receive my VIP email HERE.