We talk a lot about love in our little corner of the internet: finding it, celebrating it, holding it close —and who can blame us? It’s the reason The White Wren exists! But there’s one aspect of love that we’ve yet to tread on.
You see, love by definition is a risk. To love someone, truly love someone, you seemingly take your heart right out of your own chest and place it in the hands of another. In love, you trust that person to hold it dear, to be gentle with it, to be kind to your soul —and when you’ve given it well, you’ll find the sweetest joy of knowing that that person will treat your heart far better than you ever did. Suddenly you realize it was never truly at home with you in the first place, and there comes a peace with that knowledge that surpasses logic itself. But there’s just one difficulty: giving your heart away — even to the right person — opens it up to the possibility of being broken. In a thousand tiny ways. Or, most notably, in one very big and very terrible way.
The dream is finding your one, making it official, loving fiercely for eighty years, and passing from this life on the exact same day in the bliss of peaceful sleep. Now, some people come pretty close —we’ve all heard those beautiful stories — but most who find their love will some day have to lay their hand down, for however short a time, before they can hold it once more. Yet for others, tragically, that time seems far, far too soon…
When we love, we take a risk. We risk losing it far sooner than we ever imagined having to give it up. We risk losing it in ways that seem so unbearably quick and terribly unfair. We risk feeling like we could never possibly heal those shattered pieces of our soul. We look out over the edge and leap into the glorious flight without ever truly knowing how long we will soar —but every time, without a doubt, without question, with every ounce of certainty this world can bear… it is worth it. That beautifully flawed, human heaven is worth it. For however long you live there. Because when you are truly in it, you’ll find your heart comes to know a beauty far richer than it could ever teach itself. And that beauty equips you to take that incredible heartbreak and fashion it into something worthy of that someone you lost.
And that, dear friends, is worth every risk in the world.
A word from photographer Trisha Spencer of Xsperience Photography:
“This is a photoshoot that represents a different stage of love. The stage that follows a death of one of the two in the relationship. It is more than just pretty pictures… it’s an inspiring story of real life, real grief, and real emotions. Kayla is a young widow who turned her grief into something special. The INDY Foundation.”
If you would like to know more about Kayla, Kyle, and the lovely INDY Foundation, visit their website, here.
photographer: Xsperience Photography / foundation: INDY Foundation / venue: Belle Prairie Park / stylist, planner, and designer: Trisha Lynn of Xsperience Photography / dress boutique and dress designer: JJs House / makeup artist and hair stylist: Katie Fouquette / rentals: Dees Decorating / journal: Rustic Journals / film lab: Photovision
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