Why Waiting for Something to Happen Means Nothing Will Happen

"This mirror is mean," I muttered to myself as I tried on a new outfit. The holidays always do a number on my attempts to eat well, and then I spend months trying to get back into the habit and schedule of the "pre-holidays." I know I'm not alone in that crazy, evil cycle. You spend 4 months eating poorly and then 8 months working hard to correct it. Meanwhile, you don't feel great about yourself for all 12 months. Not feeling great about yourself means you wait to take those photos.

You wait until that next great haircut, you wait until your hair grows back out because you don't like the cut. You wait to lose weight, you wait to have more toned arms. And while you wait, your family grows up around you. People get older, grow up, become adults, move out. Puppies become dogs, then older dogs, and suddenly they're not there anymore.

My 7 year old dog passed away a month ago, from Hemangiosarcoma, a cancer that typically hits hard and fast, and is always lethal. We didn't know he had it, and didn't know what was happening until it had happened and he was gone.

I have lots of photos of him - he was photogenic and smart, knew when he was having his photo taken, and cooperated (mostly) for test shots and lighting experiments. I've got thousands of shots of him from my phone and my camera, some beautiful images but mostly blurry snapshots. I've got some photos of him and me, some of him and my husband, tons by himself or with other family and friends.

However, I have only ONE photo of the three of us together, where I planted him down in front of the Christmas tree in 2011 and forced my husband to sit with him. I set the timer and ran back and forth a half-dozen times to get the shot (not ideal), and gave the photo to my mom for Christmas. It was a frustrating experience, because of the running back and forth, and I never rushed to recreate it. I thought I had more time.

My biggest regret now that Hauser's gone is that we never had family photos taken by a pro. I have a photographer picked out for after we have a baby, but for some reason have never attempted to have our photos taken as the family we are now… or were, one month ago. I am thankful for the one photo of us, as crappy as it is - it was before we changed our eating habits; we were wearing whatever we happened to be wearing (is that a hoodie over pj's?); and Hauser looks like he's about to run away. It's an imperfect photo, but I'm glad I have it.

There’s a Lemony Snicket quote, “If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.” And sadly, we don’t know how long that will be. It might be shorter than you think.

Stop waiting to update your family photos. Life will never give you a perfect moment to have photos taken, and the imperfect moments that make up our lives are passing by, whether your hair is the right length or not. Hire the photographer who is right for your family (here are some tips to help with that) and hang those photos on your walls.