Simple Definition of visionary
adjective  vi·sion·ary \ˈvi-zhə-ˌner-ē\
: having or showing clear ideas about what should happen or be done in the future

Travel plans, business ideas, websites, creative photo shoots, products that need to be invented, you name it… I think about it. Not just think, but I dream and obsess over it. My kids have an ongoing joke in our house about me and my ideas. They can’t just enjoy creating one little craft or hobby without me turning it into a business idea and telling them how to sell it.

Hundreds of ideas go through my head, everyday, all at the same time. Every once in a while I will slow down long enough to pick one and execute it.

The first thing I do is grab my notebook, sketch out what I want to see. Then surf the internet for ideas or to see if its been done before. Next step, I dive right in.

Usually I am so excited to get it started, I jump right into it without planning how to get it finished. Well actually I do even map out a plan to finish it, but in my head, its already done. I see the finished product before I even start.

I have read that the endorphins that are released in your brain when planning a vacation create more happiness than when you are actually experiencing the trip in real time. Anticipation makes you happier than the reality of the experience. Think of it like Christmas eve as opposed to Christmas day.

For the sake of this blog post, with no further scientific research, I am going to assume for a few moments, that this same premise applies to other areas of planning and anticipation. My writing, mapping, planning, window shopping, internet surfing and sketching is more fulfilling than executing the actual plans.

For example, a few weeks ago after we got new-to-us furniture, I was inspired to spruce up our apartment. I went to Home Depot, loaded my shopping cart with paint brushes, masking tape, and a nice new aqua paint for the bathroom as well as a clean bright white to freshen up our ancient kitchen cabinets.

After two days of cleaning, prepping and painting, I was done. But, I was not finished. I still have plans to spray paint the pull knobs for the kitchen cabinets. Have I done it yet? No. It is now two weeks later and they are piled in a bucket waiting to be prepped and sprayed the deep ocean jewel turquoise I picked out.

I ask myself, am I that much of a procrastinator? It’s not like its gonna be a hard strenuous job to spray paint twenty four pull knobs. Or is it because in my head I have already achieved satisfaction as I see it completed in my imagination. In my head, it’s done and I’m already on to my next project.

Maybe by just identifying this problem, I will be motivated enough to get the darn knobs painted so I can move on with a clear head and actualize the rest of my to do list.

Do you have unfinished business, that you see completed in your imagination? What steps can you take this week to identify why it is undone and check it off your list?

As each of my kids begin to express an interest in an area, I try my best to gather the tools and supplies needed to put in their hands to see what comes of it. Sometimes it may be a passing phase, or could turn into a career for them. Computers, musical instruments, paints, brushes, pencils, cameras, craft supplies, cooking utensils, ingredients, and make up….(tons of makeup) these are the ‘things’ that have always and continue to fill our home. Raw materials mixed with imaginative minds equals no boundaries.

I am amazed at how five human beings all raised by the same two parents, can be so completely different. I celebrate their individuality and uniqueness and I’m am always inspired by their creativity.

Many of you know either from past blog posts (or because you’ve known our family for a while) that my oldest son, Carder, is in the Coast Guard. He serves, not on a boat, but behind a computer near our nation’s capitol, protecting our country from cyber attacks. We purchased our first home computer in 1994. This was before windows was an easy to use operating system and to open any program, you had to tell the computer what to do by typing in a command. At age two Carder would sit in a booster seat so that he could reach the keyboard. He knew exactly what DOS commands to type into the black screen with the blinking white cursor to get to the games he wanted to play. Just a few years later, his room was filled with used computers, pieces, parts, cables and cords and that were hacked together to create his own systems. In addition to Carder’s techy work, he has created virtual and role playing games through the years. I hope that he will develop and produce one soon. At one point in high school he had organized a secret underground game going through the school for three years. There were a couple hundred kids involved and it was kept secret for several years. It was a proud moment when the principal acknowledged the game at his graduation.

Our second son, Bryce, has always been a wiz in the kitchen. Years ago I homeschooled him a through those evil middle school years. It was during this time that my mother was fighting breast cancer and going  through daily radiation treatments. She would pick Bryce up from our house a few days a week and take him with her. They would always visit Thai and Asian restaurants. That is where he found his great love for ethnic foods and cooking with spices. He would ask the chef what spices were used and he’d come home with a shopping list for me. When he was eleven, he would create his own variations of exotic dishes. He’s been working the past two years at Hucapoos and is making a splash as a bartender at the Sandbar.

A few years later, he picked up a guitar. Sean showed his some basic chords, then he just took off and made it his own. Later teaching himself on the bass, cello, and exploring any other instruments he’d pick up . He’s been in a few bands through the years and is currently working with a new line up. I’m excited to hear them play in a few months.

Then we had the girls…

Starting with Baylie who is now eighteen. She is definitely one of the most colorful people you’d meet. Makeup and hair color have always been her thing, changing her hair color weekly since she was twelve. She has expressed herself through painting, making gifts for family and friends and also through crochet. Earlier this year she stated exploring with theatrical makeup. People that have seen her creations believe she definitely has some career options in this field. She created this by using latex and ground coffee.

Our middle daughter is Kyleigh, now fourteen. She has picked up the makeup brushes too. Although she seems to have an allergic reaction to latex and has taken a different direction with theatrical makeup. She has found her creativity outlet in illusion makeup. Where no other materials are used. Through brush strokes, color and her imagination she creates a work of art using only skin as the canvas. I am constantly blown away each time she emerges from her room as a new character. I love watching her creative process come to life. I can’t wait to see what develops with her creative talent in the coming years.

Ava is the little powerhouse exclamation point at the end of our McNally crew. She get her fingers in all kinds of creative things. This year she has explored crafting wire jewelry, painting, watercolor and photography. Craving for some sense of order in the midst of our chaos, she is also the most organized person in the house. I think it’s a result of having to grow up in the middle everyone else’s creative messes!

They are each a work in progress and it makes my heart proud to see them explore their creativity and learn how to move in the direction for which they were wired.  I can’t do any more than to put the tools and materials in their hands and encourage them to do their best at whatever they put their hand to.

So in a nutshell that explains my kiddos! If you haven’t met them yet, I hope you get a chance to get to know them…they are quite amazing people and I am proud to be called their Momma!

Opening a new journal is kind of like a sacred ritual for me. Especially in the winter months. Early mornings when the house is quiet. Still dark, except for the colorful glow of lights from the Christmas tree spilling their  reflection on the smooth simulated woodgrain floor. This is when I have the most time for my heart to be still and think on the past before wandering thoughts venture to where I’m headed and what purpose I want to fulfill in my life.

I dream of unloading conversations that are well rehearsed in my head. Possessing hopes of telling a story with perfectly picked words, like plucking a ripe piece of fruit from a tree that will bring healing and nutrition to my soul and maybe to someone else who reads them.

A brand new journal is kind of like the first week of January. The start of something new, full of hope and potential.

Maybe it’s because they both represent a fresh start. Perhaps that is when I give myself permission to have visions what could be.

A blank canvas awaits ink strokes and characters, detailed descriptions, and feelings. Words that will paint pictures into the imagination of others. Creating new worlds into existence. I imagine telling a story they way I want to remember it, or more importantly, the way I want others to hear it.

Although, it seems as once I write or draw in the virgin journal, it loses its mysterious wonder. Those first few words I write are like sending it down a path into the life and purpose it will lead.

It might become a book of lists, or it may be filled with ideas of business ventures I want to pursue. It could just be a daily to do list, which isn’t exciting, but never a bad thing. I take great satisfaction in checking off items such a list. But each time I pierce the cellophane and crack open the spine of the book, I have hopes for so much more.

The basket under my desk and the bottom shelf in my bedroom contain the years of said journals from my past. Filled with confessions, tales, and half told stories that I feel I never quite convey exactly what I wanted to say. Doodles and pictures sometimes illustrate part of what I’m thinking. Different colors of my favorite brand uniball fine point rollerball ink scribbled throughout the pages. Resembling much like hieroglyphics, even though I wrote them, I probably could not crack the code of whatever I was meaning to say.

Other times I laugh as I flip through the pages and see when I wrote about an idea that first came to me. A thought for a new website, business, blog or inspirational photoshoot. The inception of ideas. Maybe the practical shopping list I had for a party. The movie screen of my mind transports me to that event. And I see the faces that were with me that day. Celebrating life or meeting a friend for the first time. The next page reveals a list of things I’m thankful for. Stating heartfelt gratitude for the blessings in my life. Sprinkled in between there are dozens of prayers as I spilled my heart out to my Creator.

I’m off to Amazon to pick out my new journals for the coming months continuing in my life-long ritual of unloading my brain and heart on to paper.

Do you have personal life rituals that you perform daily, weekly, yearly? Those routines that guide you through the years and help keep you grounded?

Out of my plastic cup, I sip steaming coffee and I wipe the sleepiness from my eyes. The sky is dark except for one bright planet that is still visible, pinned in the sky over the ocean.

I am sitting in my minivan listening to the waves gently roll into the sand.  A rhythmic pattern that moves up the north shore then continues on repeat. I am the only vehicle in the north beach parking lot.

On my drive here I saw three school buses picking up uniformed kids ready for their commute to school, a full two hours before school begins.

Most mornings I am awake at this time, but I usually choose to read or write propped up in my bed.

A jogger navigates around me dodging flooded puddles left from torrential downpours over the past weekend. Making his way to the beach for his morning rigor.

Every couple of months I have to be at work before the sun comes up. This is one of those mornings. This week I have two on my schedule.

The night before a sunrise wedding I am always paranoid. I set three alarms on my phone so I won’t oversleep. Although, I always wake at least an hour before my alarm, since my body can’t rest when I know I have to be somewhere early in the morning. I choose to not fight it, but I get up, make my coffee and head to the beach.

A waning gibbous moon is hanging over the Tybee Lighthouse behind me.

The sky is starting to lighten, I see the edges of clouds that have formed. A dark blue gradient with highlights of pink covers the sky from above the silhouetted palm trees to the edge of the ocean.

Mornings on the beach are a magical time and I ask myself why I  not out here for more of them.

The temperature is perfect. A cool, but still humid breeze kisses my cheeks and blows through my still damp hair.

I have fifteen minutes till the couple will be meeting me here to marry each other. They will be sealing their words of forever commitment with a kiss just as the sun pushes through the horizon.

A truck and a car just pulled up, time for me to go to work….

I was a stay at home mom with five kids.

One in private school, one in middle school, one in elementary school, one in preschool and a nursing baby attached at the hip. I was in two car pools. I volunteered at two schools. I made home cooked meals for my family seven days a week and did mountains of laundry. I attended at least three church meetings a week, sometimes four or five depending on the week or some church life crisis.

My days started at 5am, I would nurse the baby (Ava) and kiss Sean as he headed off to his 2-3 hour commute to work before getting the other four kids ready for their days, which all started 45 minutes apart.

I would go grocery shopping or run an errand then it was time to gather my little chicks back to home again. We lived in the country so each time I drove out was a minimum forty five minute round trip.

As much as I loved caring for my family, I was ready to start working towards something else in my life. Something more than running all over hell’s half acre.

A mentor of mine, Roy H. Williams taught me several years ago about exponential little bits. A little bit everyday. That’s what makes it happen.

If you want to accomplish something that seems unobtainable or unreachable, just put your mind to it and do a little bit each day. Are you wanting a big change in your life? New career, going back to school, starting a business, learn to play an instrument, get in shape, plan a vacation.

I started by getting more organized, I would shop only twice a month so I could use the “errand running time” to study more about what I wanted to do. Even if it was waiting in a carpool line. I would write out business plans and dreams of what I wanted to do.

I would take Ava and Kyleigh to the park and take pictures of them, learning more about lighting and portrait photography. During Ava’s nap time, I would put her down to sleep in the studio so that I could photograph her while she was sleeping and practice my studio lighting.

I would ask other moms if I could photograph their kids and send them prints for free. Until one day a mom I met at the park asked if I would do a photo session of her daughter. She paid me for that session. I came up with a price list for prints. Then three months later she asked for another session. From that session, she purchased $3,000 in prints. That was when I only charged $20 for an 8×10. That was the validation I needed. From that point on, my business had officially started. One year from when I put my thoughts to paper and made a commitment to start a new thing in my life, it came to reality that I was depositing a check in the bank for three thousand dollars.

When you set your mind to something, and commit to following through, no matter how long it takes, you have to do more than just ‘wish’ it into being. You just have to work at it a little bit each day and it will come together.

It won’t all happen in one day.

Being committed to your decision means being willing to do something everyday, no matter how little to move you closer to what you seek to achieve.

If it is a job change, then start learning and gathering the skills needed for that job. Meet for coffee or send an email to someone who is already doing your dream job.

If it is learning a new skill, begin to read articles or books about it.

If it is starting a business or hobby business, then gather what you will need to start it. Supplies, used equipment… whatever it takes. Start right where you are.

If it is a vacation you have always dreamed about, then take a google map and start planning it. Find people that live there through facebook or other meetup groups. Engage in conversation with others who have made the same trip. Count the cost, save your spare change everyday, skip the $4 coffee and put that money towards your goal. Before you know it you will feel the cool waves crashing on your legs, or zooming down the slopes in Switzerland…whatever it is, start planning for it now.

With technology and information literally at your fingertips 24 hours a day, there is no reason to not put your dream into motion and start seeing it become reality.

Your dreams and visions are your responsibility to make happen, not someone else’s.

If you have already started down the path and have been working on your exponential little bits, but things don’t seem to be happening quick enough, then you may need to cut some things out of your life to make room for what you say is your true desire. It’s never a bad idea to take inventory of where you spend your time and money.

Turn off the TV or better yet stop paying for it and put that money toward your goal, take the Facebook app off of your phone, sleep one hour less a night, skip going out that extra night a week or month. Implement a new time management life hack once a week.

Soon you will find extra time throughout your day to start applying this time to your passion.

When you are ready to get going on your changes, let me know your plans. Sometimes stating it to someone, putting it into words is what will get the ball rolling. But also, I will warn you, use caution when sharing your dreams. Stay away from the negative people stuck in their own lives and the naysayers that don’t want to see you succeed. Keep a positive attitude and just take one step at a time.

Sean and I were giving a ride to our class instructor. We were driving from the Red Roof Inn on i-35 in South Austin to the Wizard Academy. We stayed at the hotel closest to the school, which was fifteen miles away. This was back when the academy was hosted at Williams Marketing in the tiny town of Buda.

Before campus property was purchased. Before Chapel Dulcinea was stately perched on the cliff side. Before students slept wrapped in Egyptian cotton sheets in private mansion rooms in the hill country. Before the Wizard’s tower reached into the clouds and library shelves were packed with books. Before bronze plaques carried names of the donors that made the dream a reality.  Before the wine cellar was stocked with exquisite bottles from far away vineyards and Don Quixote hung from every wall. Before Daniel Whittington was vice-chancellor, giving tours of Scotland. Before thousands of wisards began travelling from around the world to study at the most progressive, out of the box thinking, 21st century business school. Heck, this was even before Sean Taylor graduated from high school.

Classes met in the upper room with no windows. Tables arranged in rows that could seat no more than ten people in the room that would get overheated quickly. The walls were off white and the carpet was gray. It was the beginning of a dream, and we were excited to be part of it. Sean and I were eager students, anxious to learn whatever we could from Roy Williams, aka “the Wizard of Ads”, Dr. Nick Grant and Dean Rotbart, the man in the back seat of our car.

I had read about him through Roy’s writings, although I had not met him in person until now. I already knew that Dean was a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and he had been a regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

I was extremely shy and didn’t talk much back then. I had been working on pushing myself to engage with people, but I still had a long way to go. In an effort to get to know our new friend better, I asked him a few questions about his life and interests. Conjuring up small talk was painful for this extreme introvert. Masterfully he dodged my questions and within a flash, he had spun the conversation on its heels. Before I knew it, I found myself breathlessly talking to him about my passion for portrait photography and a rattling on about business ideas that had been bouncing around in my brain.

Fifteen miles later, we arrived to our destination, a tiny speck on the map, and my life had changed.  All of the sudden, I  had a clearer vision for what I wanted to do with my life. Dean ended our conversation by clarifying back to me my true passion for photographing people and I needed to be doing that.

At the time, I had been teaching a few scrapbooking classes at a local store as a personal exercise to overcome my fear of speaking in front of people. I was at a place in my life to make a decision. Contemplating going back to school, having another child, and starting a business. Up until then, I only had  one camera and a couple banged up lenses. I would take pictures of my children and my friend’s babies. But, I was never for hire.

After returning home from Austin that week, I possessed the confidence to start my portrait business. Within a year, my basement became a studio and office and I started booking sessions every week. That was twelve years ago and I am still pursuing my passion of photography as well as other business ventures.

A frequent saying at the Wizard Academy is the most precious gift we are given is the gift of each other. Truer words were never spoken. I believe, when you operate in your gifting, living out your life’s purpose, lives around you will be touched and changed for the better. That’s what my friend Dean did for me over a decade ago. I’m sure he still has no idea the impact that our thirty minute conversation had on my life. He was just doing we what he does best, interviewing people and uncovering their story in their own words and presenting it back to them.

What is that thing that causes your heart to skip a beat when you talk about it. Are you on the edge of making a big decision? Wanting to take the plunge? It might be time for you to go for a little ride and have a conversation with a friend. It just might change your life.

It’s been three years and I still haven’t gotten the hang of it. Here in the south the kids head back to school around the first week of August. Yesterday was the first day of school for many Tybee and Savannah students.

This is when everyone announces “Summer’s over!”

“What??” I exclaim, “It was 98 degrees today and there is still six weeks of summer left!” According to the farmer’s almanac, the last day of summer is September 22.

When we hit the reset button on our life almost four years ago, we not only sold everything and moved 500 miles away, but we decided to not live according to everyone else’s rules and schedules.

I lived too many years doing what I was “supposed” to do or living up to other’s expectations of me.  Rushing around every morning to meet deadlines and schedules for each of my kid’s schools. This included putting them on busses and shipping them off for almost 10 hours a day, or carpooling to get them where they were expected to be. One year I had four kids in four different schools and a nursing baby on my hip as I started my business from home.  No wonder I thought I was losing my mind, I think I actually was.

When we checked out our schooling options during our move to Georgia in the fall of 2011, imagine how surprised we were to learn about public online cyber school. It turns out that about half of the states in the U.S. offer this, but so many people don’t know that it exists. Cyber school is free public education that takes place via the internet.

It is still very different than traditional homeschooling that you may have heard of. Because with online school, there is a full staff of teachers and administrators that handle all of the operations of the school. I will be the first to tell you that I am NOT a teacher! The parent responsibility in cyber school is to keep the students on task, take attendance, and drive them to a mandatory state testing site one week out of the year.

About a week before school starts, a large box arrives at our home. It contains all of the supplies needed for the year. Text books, art supplies, science beakers, thermometers, head phones, litmus test strips…you name it, it’s in there. So when other parents are frantically searching the best sales for paper, pencils, binders, tissues, antibacterial wipes…etc… we are still hanging out on the beach.

Since Sean and I both work from home and we are in control of our own schedule, this is a perfect fit for the life we were seeking. 

We have been able to be available  in a bigger part of our kids’ days. We usually have a pretty relaxed, non-rushed morning, enjoying breakfast and sitting on the deck together. Usually laughing, telling stories and sharing life together. 

Once we start into our work day, they fire up their laptops and begin their lessons. A few times a week they will have “live lessons” this is where they have an interactive video feed with their teachers going through lessons, or discussion groups with classmates.

The most beautiful part about this schooling option is the freedom it buys us as a family. As long as they have Internet connection, they can be “in” school.

For years I have dreamed of traveling with our kids. Our hope is to spend a little time during the winter months in other countries exploring the world to gain a bigger scope and expand their worldview.

We are also currently planning a few days to south Florida this fall for snorkeling and camping. I want to teach them that traveling does not have to cost a fortune. You don’t have to wait for “some day” to arrive. You just have to make it happen. It’s as easy as grabbing a tent and snorkel gear and doing it. I’ll keep you informed as this trip comes together.

For the skeptics that ask with great concern about my kids’ social skills…well then, I guess you just haven’t spent any time with them. They are quite a social crew.

Baylie (17) is able to work two part time jobs here on the island and still hang out with her friends.

Kyleigh (14) has several friends that are enrolled in cyber school too, Many times, they decide to get a week’s worth of work done in three days so they can have a four day weekend. She is, also involved in two youth groups. Keeping faith denomination boundaries at bay, she attends both a protestant non-denominational church youth group, a Catholic youth group and weekly Mass here on Tybee.

Ava (11) has recently graduated from attending the past two years at Tybee Island Maritime Academy. Which was an amazing experience for her. She will be returning to cyber school at home this year. She serves as an officer on the Tybee Youth Council, participating in our local city government, and continues to be a teacher’s helper at her previous school. 

As parents of five kids, we have always taken each year and each kid as they come, making the best education choices we can with what we have for each of child as we navigate through unknown territory.  For now, we are thankful that we have cyber school as an viable option and we are grateful for our days that are spent with them laughing, learning and living life together…and we can enjoy six more weeks of summer!

Today Sean and I cleaned out the last of anything we had saved in storage here in Virginia.

My dad had loaned us a large sea container to store the remnants of our past life that was on the back of his 30 acre property.

Each time we would return to Virginia we would grab a few missing items from what we called “the green box”  Most of the stuff was furniture that didn’t sell at our big a$$ yard sale we had almost four years ago. There were boxes of marketing materials, sample prints and frames that used to hang in the sales room of our our custom built studio. A few backdrops were stacked inside, that I held onto in case I ever felt like I needed more than the beach for a studio.

During the first couple years when we would retrieve items from the green box, it would stir up sour memories. An avalanche of emotion would usually erupt. I would walk around in a funk in the days that followed, as memories lingered of giving up a dream that I had been building for 8 years.

During this trip, we decided we were done picking through the past. We have established a new life on Tybee. One that we love and that has become quite simple when it comes to owning material things.

On this trip, we made it a priority to sweep the box clean.

On Tuesday morning after sipping coffee and watching a spectacular sunrise over the front meadow, Sean and I took one of Dad’s dump trucks and headed to the back of the property. One by one we sorted through the remaining boxes and plastic bins. Most we turned upside down and emptied  straight onto the burn pile that sits next to the box. This is where dad regularly burns brush and debris.

I called a local photographer friend to see if she wanted some backdrops and a few salvaged props. We set aside a van full of stuff for her, this made me happy that she can make use of them in her studio.

The last item to top the pile to burn was the sort-of-famous “Wen McNally Sofa” this was an iconic piece in my studio. It was the traveling sofa that made weekly appearances to every Mountain View home football game for 4 years. Where students would have pictures taken in our photobooth on the sofa as we raised money for the school’s sports programs. Then, in the studio, High school seniors and family clients frequently requested “the sofa” for their portrait sessions. The best photo shoot with the sofa Sean actually caught on video.

It did not take long for the pile of my past to begin to smolder on the hot coals. Within minutes there was cracking and popping echoing in the forest as the sofa was engulfed in flames that shot fifteen feet into the air.

I never realized how therapeutic this action would be. But now I finally feel like we have moved on. Something we have strived to do over the past four years.

I won’t lie, it has been a process. The friendships that we have made on Tybee have made the transition from Northern Virginia rat race to Tybee Island life easier for us. We treasure our relationships both old and new.

A friend told me the other day that he thought there were people that read my blog and can’t believe that we were all of the sudden happy after moving to Tybee. I told him, I choose to write about the happy times. That doesn’t mean there have not been times along the way that have been hard, unsatisfying or struggling to make ends meet. We certainly had those days too. But even so, we had a new hope when we moved here. There was something different. I think Tybee is an amazing place and I do think that has much to do with it. But more than that we came to a new place in our lives. A new commitment to each other, a new way of approaching life together.

We accepted simplicity into our life. In turn peace and tranquility followed. We were able to clear our heads and focus on what is really the most important… Our family and each other.

Do you have a green box of your past? Is it time to sweep it clean and move on letting the past be the past?

I was pretty tired at this point and ready to be home in my bed. He the walked me over to a pretty young girl. She looked vaguely familiar. She then holds her cell phone up as she shows me a picture illuminating from the screen. I recognized it immediately. It was a portrait that I had taken of her as she was entering her senior year of high school, seven years ago.

Tate Snider. I remember her session well. She was a snowboarder and had brought in her boarding equipment for her session. We created some great images during her photoshoot.

Her family had moved to South Carolina within weeks of her portrait session, and I had not seen her since.

Now, in her mid-twenties,she was vacationing on Tybee for a few days with her friends for a bachelorette party.

She and her friends had just arrived on Tybee and were checking out the night scene in the ‘down front’ area. This is the part of Tybee located at the south end where there are a line of bars and restaurants near the Tybee pier. When they came into the Sandbar, she immediately recognized Sean by his crazy beard. Which is different than it was back then, but it was still a unique feature about him.

What’s also peculiar about this story, it was not the first time this has happened to us. A few years ago, a young army soldier came up to our apartment, pointing to the logo on our Durango he asked if this was the ‘Wen McNally’ from Virginia. He then proceeded to tell Sean that I had taken his senior portraits a few years prior. Then two years later his brother came to Tybee so that I could create his senior portraits too.

As I type this, we are driving back to Virginia from Georgia to photograph the wedding of Kaitlyn and Maxim this Saturday. I have been their family’s photographer for senior, family even their beloved Irish Setter portraits. I will be posting their wedding pictures in a few weeks.

I have always enjoyed working with our clients and have been honored to have been a part of their life and memories. Creating a lasting relationship with our clients has always been a goal for us.

We appreciate any referrals that we receive for weddings and portrait sessions on Tybee Island, in Virginia or any other destination locations. Thank you for passing our name and information along! My email address is wen@wenmcnally.com and my business website is www.wenmcnally.com

Do you ever find that when you talk to someone about an idea you have but has been unclear, suddenly becomes clear? Or a least a few more pieces fall into place.

Often times I get a glimpse of an idea, just one piece of a 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. A mere fraction of the whole. I usually tuck this piece away in my brain and let it set dormant for a while. Maybe even completely forgetting about it. A while later a second or third piece or a handful of pieces get thrown in. I don’t know how the pieces fit together, but as I sort through them I begin to see the color and texture of what the picture is going to be.

My left brain, the organized, rational side wants to separate all of the straight edge pieces first. Fitting them together to creating a border so that I will know my boundaries. Then have a pile of same color or texture in hopes to have more pieces quickly fit together.

But my right brain, the creative, artistic side wants to immediately sling paint on the canvas and start fitting pieces together. Then it occurs to me that this just might be a picture without borders. One that will continue to grow and evolve as the Creator inspires.

I know this sounds pretty abstract and vague, but that’s what the pile of pieces seem like too. Maybe its a business idea, or a thought for a creative artistic piece to do through music, video, painting, photography, or a public service campaign, a nonprofit, or grassroots organization to make the world a better place.

Maybe its a seemingly hair brained idea to sell everything and move 500 miles away to a resort island and start life over.

Whatever that crazy dream, absurd idea is that you have, where people might think you are a little ‘out of your mind’ to even think about it…I want to encourage you to start sorting through the pieces. See if anything fits, and actually makes sense.

It helps to have a creative space to brainstorm and collaborate ideas with other like minds. I have often considered having a mastermind group of sorts to share ideas with creative minds that share similar but different dreams and ventures. Friends that can help to see objectively and bring shape and form to an idea.

Are you holding a few puzzle pieces in your hand and not sure what you should do with them? Would you like a safe place with like minded creatives to discuss your ‘way out there’ ideas with? A place where someone else might hand you that missing piece that is the perfect fit in your puzzle. Or where you can come along side another and generate an idea to help them in their venture.

This could be that start of something pretty wonderful.
Let me know if you’d like to be involved with a group like this. It will more than likely include a Facebook group and local fun get togethers to discuss projects, and ventures.

If you are interested, please send me an email, if I get enough interest, we will start something soon.