my life is counting down to this moment

I really never thought it would happen to me. I thought I was stronger, or more highly evolved, or at least less of a sap. Let’s face it, I’ve always been a sap. But maybe just, less visibly a sap? I have only been a mother for 8 months and every wedding I’ve photographed in that time, a single moment wrecks me. Part of me knows that I’m not guaranteed this moment. Cadence could decide to never get married. Or he might elope. Or he may hate dancing and forbid this event from happening at his wedding. But another part. (A deeper part?) Another part of me knows that my whole life with him, from the moment he was born, is a clock ticking down to this one future moment. Our last dance of him as my little boy. Him as all mine. And it wrecks me. I’m not sure how I took this photo since my eyes were blurred with tears but it’s beautiful. This moment, at the very end of the song, where they both know the dance is ending. This hug. That expression. The tension in her eyebrows and in her arms. She used to be able to hold his whole body in the arms that now just wrap around his shoulders. And then nothing but smiles, of course, because it’s a happy day. But still… this one moment where time stood still, a mother and her son. Lord help me, now I’m crying again. I’ll just leave you with the photo and be done with it…