Courtesy of my neighbor in Marseille 😉 + some thoughts on death, in the wake of a death. (Patreon)

Well.

How blessed am I to have landed right next to a lovely and talented Swedish photographer, at my random Air Bnb in Marseille?

Life has greater plans for us than we could ever have for ourselves, aye?

Ah.

It truly does.

I lost one of my aunts earlier this week.

I didn’t really break until the day after these photos were taken.

You know that moment? Days (weeks, months, years) after a person’s passing — it finally hits you.

You’re overcome with the newfound reality of this person not-being in the terrestrial realm any longer.

Yeah.

I had a moment (read: two hours) of wailing this afternoon.

Complete and utter, no-holds-barred brokenness.

A moment of being shattered by the irrepressible heartbreak stemming from this fact — that I will never, ever share a laugh with her again.

I texted Aina today.

“I’m so sorry. Part of why I felt so off in our shoot last night is that my aunt passed earlier this week. And I didn’t even let myself grieve it this week… until now...”

Even with me feeling a bit off and strange, we kept our date to take some photos. I’ll be leaving Marseille in two weeks.

And these photos are part of the result of the evening...

I love them.

On top of Aina shooting with her very lovely professional camera (photo/s to come)… I brought over my Instax.

Just to have fun. (I love this thing.)

And she got… soo… into it.

As did I.

Because, why not?

Because wow — go figure — creative folks all over the world are starving to make something new with other creative folks.

Voila…!

Stop questioning it… right?

Just create.

With the materials you have, the resources you have, the people you have, the stories you have — right here and now.

Life is precious.

None of us know how long we have… nor how long they have. (Our beloved ones.)

Make the art you long to make.

Take the risks you fear to take.

It’s all so fleeting, anyway.

Anyway… I’m grateful for this experience this week.

A capturing of the reality and beauty of being human — of feeling grief, and joy, and despair, and excitement, and hope — all of it.

Making it work.

Feelin’ it all, and choosing joy — at the end of the day. Choosing joy.

I really love what we captured here.

A moment between.

A world apart.

God bless mi Tia.

With all my heart.

xo

A.M.

For Maggie ❤️ Bendiciones.

Mi Tia, mi corazon.

Photos by Aina Lanjot