pregnant state of mind

How I wish all my potential clients would schedule shoots with the same urgency as those wanting maternity portraits. If everyone had a “pregnant state of mind” there would be no procrastination in doing the thing one really wants to do. We would not just contemplate the merits of acting on a desire, but would actually act on that desire.

I am the queen of procrastination so I write this as much for myself as anyone else who might be reading. In contrast to me and my fellow procrastinators, a woman carrying a baby in her belly has the awareness that her time being pregnant is limited by natural law. It may feel endless on occasion as she eagerly awaits the birth of her child, but she can look at a calendar, see a due date circled, and know that her pregnant state will not continue much if at all beyond that. So she calls for a photo shoot, and sounds desperate if unable to get in before her due date, because she knows……this is it……the time to do this can only be now.

For most of us though, the list of “I’ll get around to doing it at some point” only grows longer and longer. We get caught up in the blurred motion of everyday life and don‘t notice how quickly the days pass until they‘ve strung themselves together and created another year. And then we act surprised. We wait for the most opportune moment to act, for the stars to align just so……..when we lose five pounds……..when work isn’t so hectic…….when the holidays are over. We kid ourselves by thinking that there really is such a thing as a perfect time. When the truth of the matter is, the closest thing to perfect time we can ever know is the very moment we are currently residing in. It’s the only one we can truly do anything to influence.

Sometimes I wish I could forcefully announce to my potential clients, “I am doing a photo shoot at your home next Thursday whether you are ready or not”, and then just show up. I would then create portraits that would illustrate to them the beauty of their life in its present state……..its “pregnant state“. Another definition of the word pregnant of course being “full of meaning–significant”. And shouldn’t all our present time moments be recognized as such?

Ripe, replete, rich……pregnant.

~Cynthia