Two years ago, I was living some of my hardest days. While the hardest chapter of my life was 2020 – 2023, August of 2024 was a close second. I was still recovering from a horrible back injury that inflicted excruciating physical pain, which led to emotional and mental scarring, too. And while that was going on, we found out that Linley had a tumor in his lung that needed to be removed ASAP. While I was in PT for 10 months and getting spinal epidurals, I was also worrying about whether I would lose my son and best friend (yes, Linley is my baby boy, don’t judge me! 🤣) 

Fast forward to August of 2026: Linley and I are both happy and healthy (thank goodness). But now I’m finding myself “needing” to make up for lost time, wanting to do all the things and rushing my way through the summer. 

This is my reminder to all of you, and to myself, to slow down! We can’t do all the things at once. We can’t commit to every invite or constantly run ourselves to the ground. Sometimes doing less is more, and I’m *slowly* unlearning that going a million miles a minute is the only way to survive. 

Here are photos – both beautiful and tough – from August of 2024. What a rollercoaster that time was, and I’m glad I’m off that ride! 

Shoutout to Piedmont for getting me in touch with the best PT and specialists around, to Blue Pearl Animal Hospital for saving Linley’s life and to all our friends at Bantam who rallied for Linley (and me!) during that time. 🫶 

Photos taken August 2024