Have you lost your joy? Day 6

Photos vanish. Whenjoy fades, cameras become a threat. ‘No photos of me.’ ‘I look tired.’ ‘Just the grandkids.’ It seems trivial, but disappearing from your own record is a kind of grief.

At my grandson’s birthday, a dear friend slipped our of every shot. Later, I asked why. She sighed, ‘I don’t like what I see.’ We made a deal: one photo that day-hands only, cutting the cake with the birthday boy-and one head-and-shoulders shot we wouldn’t otherthink. She chose the one where she was midlaugh, chin not perfect, eyes alive. It’s framed in her kitchen now. The goal isn’t to love every picture; it’s to remianvisible to yourself.

If this is you: let one photo exist this month. Not posed to death. Not filtered to oblivion. You, as you are, in the life you’re living. You deserve to appear in your own story.