I was talking to a friend this week and she admitted to me that she’s jealous that I have my business and she has nothing like that in her life. She sees so many moms that are creating, building, learning, achieving and she just looks around to piles of laundry and dishes. And I knew exactly how she felt. There have been times in my life that I have been so discouraged because I thought in order to be a good mom and wife I needed to devote my life to taking care of my children and home and anything else was selfish in some way. Disclaimer: This thinking did not come from my husband in any way, he is my biggest fan and supporter and is amazing at sharing the household responsibilities with me as our personal and work demands have changed over the years.

But now that I am raising three daughters of my own, I see the amazing talents each of them possess. They are each so vastly different but I know they have the ability to change the world for the better if they want to. Not necessarily on the global scale, maybe just within their own community or even individual people’s lives. They have special talents that the world needs and I never want them to feel like they are being selfish by using and sharing their talents.

This is absolutely not a work vs. stay at home mom debate, I’m a big supporter of both and that there is no one right answer for every family. But I do want all the moms out there that can’t see past scrubbing toilets, grocery shopping, driving children everywhere, that there is more to the world that you have to offer and its ok to pursue your passions.

As a photographer, I really believe in the importance of what I am doing. When I look at the picture of the Grandma I never met and my dad tells me stories about her, we are connecting our family in a way that would not be possibly without those photographs. When I hear that one of my clients lost their son and I know the family portraits I took are one of the last portraits they have all together, I know I have a made a difference in that grieving mothers heart. When the senior girl comes in so unsure of herself and her beauty, and I can make her feel special for a day and see herself like she never has before and give her a beautiful album to always go back to and remember that feeling. I know that I have made her life a little sweeter. When the new mom comes into the studio, sleep deprived, struggling to nurse her daughter and stressed about all the new challenges and she see her gorgeous little girl, she is reminded that all the sacrifice is worth it. And as time passes and my clients look back at all the portraits I took, they will know they have had a beautiful, happy life and they can share those portraits with their own children and grandchildren just like my dad did for me.

The world is better because I have shared my gift and there is nothing selfish about that. You have a gift too. Use it. Bless the lives of others through your talent. You can be a mother and develop and share your talents too. The world needs you.