I am a stubborn little monkey.
Yep, I can really dig my pretty heels in.
As a teen my Mum and Dad would take me on.
My hubby knows just when and how to challenge me.
My sister asks the right questions to loosen me up.
And the kids, well isn’t that what nagging is for, getting Mum to change her mind.
It is a rare moment when a friend can budge, coerce and shift me once my mind is made up.
Here is the story……
We were at the park, party celebrating my friend’s daughter’s birthday. They had cleverly organised for a professional photographer to be there and generously offered a few of us the chance to pose for our own family shot.
I instinctively declined.
Mmmmm……not sure why, it goes something like this.
It is not our party,
No that’s okay,
and
Truthfully and secretly I still hate posing for photos.
Remember the pretty girl with the crooked smile? Guess where she still lives? Oh yes, she is very much a part of me. I may choose to bury her, cover her up and often ignore her and yet she still has a voice inside my head and it rose to the surface right then and there.
In that moment I was self-conscious and uncomfortable. Seems strange to me when I can take and share countless selfies. I even made a video of them. Yet the thought of posing for a photo made me shudder.
“No thank you” I said loud and clear.
Stubborn high-fived itself and I sat back watching the other families all pose and smile.
My tenacious friend is not easily deterred. She insisted, rounded up my kids and hubby. Photographer in position.
“Come on, a quick photo” she pleaded.
Stubborn dug in deeper, but this was not an easy moment to worm out of. Kids and hubby standing there waiting.
Okay okay, there are great things outside my comfort zone…..let’s do it.
We all smiled, we all posed and then we had a fun, silly relaxed moment.
Wow, look what I almost missed capturing.
I received this photo a few days ago and have looked at it at least 5o times since. I have stared at it, added it as wallpaper on my phone and I shed a little tear.
This is my family and thanks to a caring, generous, kind and determined friend we have now captured a moment of bliss.
Have you taken stubbornness on and found bliss on the other side?
This is day 11 of my 31 Days of Captured Bliss.


If only we could let ourselves go more to capture more bliss. I have just written of a similar story only I missed that precious moment.
Sarah letting go is hard sometimes and hindsight is always easier.
Tenacious friend…beautiful friend. LOVE the pic!
That is such a fun family shot! So whimsical! Because I’m the one that takes all the pictures, I’m not in very many of our photos. It’s well worth taking some of these opportunities for that reason alone! Thanks for stopping by my blog this morning…following you now!
Michelle yes the photographer is often absent in the photos. This photo is a treasure.
I wrote a post about it a while back. 🙂 I was sad when I realized there were whole sections of my life that the kids will have no pictures of me from. I am much more cognizant of it now.
Michelle as the kids have got older they have taken photos of me at places we go and of course the group selfie is always fun. There are gaps for me too.