I have been doing my outfit of the day photo shoots every morning for the past couple weeks. It works really well for me because the sun is out and I can take good pictures in its natural glow. Today was a little different though.
I was ready at my usual time but the sun was playing hide and seek with me. Anyone who has ever woken up early to get something done before heading to work will know how frustrating it can be when your plans go awry. The warm glow of the sun that I have begun to depend upon these summer mornings was absent. The result - all my pictures looked dark and dull.
Thankfully the sun came back out from the clouds eventually and I was able to take a few good pictures before it was time to wrap.
While selecting and editing my pictures later today, I thought of how the picture looks so different from my state of mind during the shoot.
You see a calm and composed girl sitting in all the glory of a beautiful floral print dress under the warm glow of the sun. What was going on inside my head was completely different though. While I tried to look pretty and happy, my brain was in overdrive trying not to panic so that I can make the most of the few precious minutes before I had to leave for work.
The lives of bloggers can seem so carefree from the outside. It can seem like all we do is shop for pretty clothes and then take pictures wearing them. Of course, creating content, shopping and photo shoots are loads of fun, even when you are DIYing it like me.
But people's lives are so much more than the few parts visible to us. Some of us have jobs or kids or other responsibilities or maybe even all of those things together. Or maybe one or more of those things are missing from our lives and we feel their absence keenly.
We have good days and bad days; and days when we just want to take a break from it all. Some days we take that break. Other days we hold our heads high and go about life like the warrior we all have inside of us. Because that's life. No matter what happens, the only thing we all can do is keep putting one foot ahead of the other and keep moving forward.
Having said that, there are days when I feel like I have taken not one but five or ten or even a hundred steps backwards. Days when I feel like I am made of something brittle like glass. Those are the bad days. Sometimes they can feel like bad weeks or months or even years.
At such times I choose to remember that it's darkest before dawn and sunlight doesn't come in a blinding flash. It creeps up on us slowly, almost lovingly. Like a mother waking up her child. So that our eyes adjust to the light and we learn to see from the haze of the darkness, the beauty of the life we have before us.
The picture doesn't form all at once. It starts with the outlines and silhouettes while the details fill up over the next few minutes. And we are amazed at how a night so barren can bring a day so precious.
I hope today was a good day for you. But if you didn't or if you ever hit a rough patch, remember this, and maybe it will give you the strength to walk through the dark night.
I believe fashion helps us in our everyday lives if we use it as a positive force. Click here to read how fashion can be an armour to survive the harsh realities of everyday life.
