A quick Sunday reminder to get outside, grab the camera, and create something anyway. The light may be harsh, the schedule may be full, and the excuses may be easy, but a semi-decent photo and a little mental reset beat doing nothing every time.
A July work trip to Corpus seemed like a harmless enough idea. Then I decided to bring one of my kids along, accidentally took the wrong exit, stopped because I was the one who needed a bathroom break, let him climb through work trucks, and surprised him with a quick beach detour before heading back north. Not bad for one of my better, albeit still questionable, traffic-brain ideas.
Six years ago, somewhere in the middle of the chaos that was 2020, I launched The Texas Native as a creative outlet and a way to keep myself grounded. Interestingly enough, nearly six years later, during another particularly stressful season of life, I find myself leaning on creativity in much the same way. This entry is a reflection on stress, growth, the peaks and valleys of life, and how this little project has quietly helped keep my head above water through it all.
There is a strange kind of guilt that comes with walking away from something that technically never did anything wrong. Sometimes it just no longer fits the life you are living.
A little different this time around: instead of one long story and a gallery, I’m breaking this work trip to Corpus up image by image. It was a productive trip, just not a particularly eventful one, and rather than force a bigger narrative, I figured I’d keep it simple and let the photos do more of the talking.
Seriously, it makes sense…