Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to family and friends,
As we all come to a close in 2025, embarking on 2026, we often reflect back over the past year. There are ups and downs, new adventures while old adventures are locked away for the memories. This has been a year reacquainting with old friends, meeting new ones (mostly along the camping trails), and still managing to keep a smile on my face.

This year, I packed my schedule full of camping trips and somehow never felt the pull to take my camera out — except for one trip in late December 2024, when that single image of the church pew poured straight out of my silence. At the time, my life felt like that empty pew: quiet, hollow, holding only the memories of better days.

But then came Edisto.

I showed up with a packed camera bag, a camper ready for ten days, and a simple goal: capture something that made me feel alive again. Something honest. Something that could tell a story and maybe even light a fire in someone else. That morning on the island, in the soft calm of the sunrise, I felt a peace I hadn’t touched in years. A whisper in my spirit said, “Turn around — see where you’ve been, and now look where you’re going. Your story isn’t stuck. Use what you’ve been given.”

And just like that, the silence cracked open.
The fire came back.
And I knew I wasn’t walking alone.

This year didn’t just give me new miles on the road — it gave me myself back. I’m healing. I’m waking up. And 2026 already feels like a year with purpose stamped across it. I’m stepping into it with a boldness I thought I’d lost, a peace that surprised me, and a fire that finally lights me up from the inside again.

So walk with me into this new season.
There’s more to see. More to learn. More to become.
And I’m grateful you’re part of the journey.

With love, peace, and a heart finally waking back up,
Mandy