“Vintage” Photo Shoot

“You can't be brave if you've only had

wonderful things happen to you.”

 
-- Mary Tyler Moore 

Isn’t life funny?  As much as we want to believe that it is feasible to avoid heart break and suffering, it is impossible to find true happiness, great success or absolute joy unless we have had the opportunity (in hindsight, it truly it is an opportunity, but at the time, it hardly seems that way) to face struggle, to face challenges.  It is almost as if life is testing us to see how badly we want this “thing”or “feeling” that we say we so badly covet. If we are willing to push through, to persevere, to do what is necessary to come out on the other side, it is only then that we are rewarded because we finally have the capacity to appreciate what we have now achieved.

It may seem a bit of a paradox that I’ve paired the above quote with the Vogue fashion shoot in The Plaza Hotel below.  A once beautiful hotel being completely remodeled perfectly encapsulates the obstacles one must overcome if one is to attain the best version of themselves.   As we can imagine, a refurbishing or remodeling of any edifice requires risk and vision.  A willingness to let go of what once was perceived as beautiful to venture to believe there is something even grander to be achieved by making oneself over. However, without struggle, without having to be brave, the wonderful outcomes that we so badly desire wouldn’t have a chance to come into fruition.


So today pat yourself on the back for being willing to take on challenges, to not sit passively by, but instead to take on life and make it something you are proud of, and if you’re sitting at the crossroads, trying to decide if you should take a risk, keep in mind what you would be risking if you didn’t go forward.  You can do it.  Be brave.

 

(Vogue September 2005 Sarah Jessica Parker photographed by Annie Leibovitz in The Plaza in New York City which was in the throes of a major renovation.)