#startthedaywithsomethingbeautiful

I am often asked why I use the hashtag #startthedaywithsomethingbeautiful.

In early 2013 I was diagnosed with MS. The next two years were the most difficult of my life as I struggled with the diagnosis as a single mum of young twins, a succession of soul-destroying neurologists and an incredibly toxic work situation.

By mid 2015 I had had enough. I left my job to freelance and pursued the art of doing anything to pay my mortgage. I started a blog, stopped my medication, sacked my neurologist & pursued a more wholistic way of managing my health. Finally, I started a project called  #startthedaywithsomethingbeautiful. With this project, I promised myself that every day, regardless, I would get out of bed, walk & I would find something beautiful.

This project changed and saved my life. It saw my photography transform from an interest into how I make a living. There were times when I struggled to get out of bed but looking for something beautiful, gave me purpose. When my sister/best friend and my person died in 2017 this project kept me sane. I can remember vividly on the morning of Tiney's memorial leaving the house at dawn to find something beautiful. I truly believe if I had not had this purpose on that day and in those awful months following Tiney's death, I would have gone insane.

Now I look for something beautiful instinctively. This project has given me hope, a sense of purpose, and a fervent belief that there is more beauty in this world than bad, despite it all. On the days when this world threatens to consume me whole, I give it the royal middle finger salute by searching for beauty and joy before anything else. This project shapes all of my landscape photography and will be something I continue until the day I die.

I am forever grateful for the fact that I can #startthedaywithsomethingbeautiful