Portraits at Aldergrove Lake Park

A holiday all about pink and all it’s variations: Valentine’s Day. I mean, truly: does it get any better than having a holiday for my favorite color? Yes, it does: Valentine’s Day is also the holiday of my favorite candy(conversation hearts, in case you’re curious) and the holiday of my favorite emotion (duuuuh! loooove, of course).

But, more than that, it’s the holiday that splits winter in half, symbolizes the coming of spring and the ending of January, summarizes all the hope and promise of despite a broken world.

Cassie and I spent an afternoon photographing portraits at Aldergrove Lake Park (the park without a lake — odd, right?!?) and brought the vibrancy of spring to a slumbering, wintry forest. With a pop of red, we woke up the wooded cove from it’s nap and giggled our way through sleepy paths and dreary twigs. With a smattering of pink, we let the trees see into their future as we blanketed their roots with paper hearts. With the trademark giggles of friends revelling in the fun of playing dress-up, we woke up the birds and startled the sleepy forest.

We celebrated life, transitions, change, age, and beauty with a thrift store dress from my college days, a couple of the best shoes a girl could dream of, and glimpses of the sun as it peeked around the Fraser fir trees before setting among the clouds.

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

A.A. Milne may have created the world’s most loveable teddy bear (hello, Winnie-the-Pooh), but he also packed a fair bit of wisdom into that childhood character.

As I spent an afternoon doing two of the things I love the most (taking photographs and laughing), I relished the beauty of friendship and marveled at the energy it takes to cultivate friendship and to get out of my own corner of the Forest to pursue relationships with people and to build community.

Two and a half years ago, I moved to Cananadaland and was a lonely little cookie. I had left behind some of the best friends a girl could ever hope for, and making new friends became an impossible task (think Mission: Impossible times ten. . . at least, that’s how it felt), and I feared I would be lonely forever.

But here I am. Thirty-plus months later, settling into this new homeland of mine, finding reasons to love my adopted country, and cherishing the friendships I have cultivated along the way.

And because EVERYTHING is better with Winnie-the-Pooh:

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?”

“We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet.
Even longer,’ Pooh answered.”

“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”