Come this time each year, reflecting back on the last twelve months is one of my favorite practices. To regather memories; to retrace journeys; to rekindle emotions. To see the faces of friends and the remnants of stories that have so positively affected me. It's a good reminder that the work, the clients, the travels, and the resulting success we see are all gifts. Sure, we work hard; but at the end of the day, the last year – and life, at it's core – is one great big gift.
It's interesting how the effect of memories and images, after having been weathered by time and circumstances, can change so drastically. How a seemingly meaningless portrait of your spouse, over the course of a few years, comes to mean the world to you simply because of what those years have held. How a grainy black-and-white picture of a dance with your grandpa now is a most prized possession. How so many of the ordinary moments become, when we look at them from just a slightly different stance, hallowed.
Around eighteen months ago now, Stephen Shireman officially joined me as my counterpart under the Waldron name. This was our first full year together, and it's been great to be able to expand the goals and the reach that Waldron stands for: to use our talents and our time in a way that affects positivity and ultimately builds relationships. Because after all, the more of those aforementioned 'ordinary momoents' we can document, the luckier we feel to have played a small part and to have been gifted the time, experiences, and relationships in exchange.
Below are a few of the folks – and their respective stories and places – alongside whom we walked this past year. It was a greatly enjoyable one. Both Stephen & I are grateful for the past year and hopeful for the coming one. Happiest of New Years, friends! – Rusty