Catie and Russ

May trip to Campovida with Locally Grown Weddings.

Joaquin Miller Park: Catie and Russ Engagement Photos

I am looking forward to Russ and Catie’s wedding at Campovida with the Locally Grown Weddings team next September!

Catie and Russ live in Chicago and came to visit for the weekend. So we found a few hours to get together and take their engagement photos at Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland.

An engagement photo session is the best way to get in sync with your wedding photographer. I find that most of the couples I work with have never been photographed by a professional and don’t know quite what to expect. I can totally relate! I don’t like being photographed and feel quite self conscious in front of the camera.

Spending time together, though, really helped us all connect. I also got a good idea of what Catie and Russ like and learned more about their story.

Congratulations, Catie and Russ!

Aurora’s Reading Room: Man’s Search For Meaning

After reading about it in countless other books, I finally decided to check this book out for myself. Contrary to other “classics” that are best when quoted rather than read in their entirety, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning is as gripping today as it ever was. It is also a good antidote to a whole bunch of rather delusional self help books written by authors whose message goes pretty much like this: if anything bad happens to you, it’s probably because you attracted it into your life. And if you think of a million dollars, you will be a millionaire.

Man’s Search for Meaning is divided in two parts: the first part is an account of Frankl’s experience in Nazi concentration camps and the second book is an explanation of his theory of logotherapy, the belief that a person needs meaning in his or her life.

Although I read much about the horrors of concentration camps and I have seen photographs and footage of the time, it is always hard to read about those events. I would be reticent to re read the first part of the book, and I would certainly warn any reader that the content is as heart wrenching as one would expect. Frankl narrates everyday life in the camps while trying to understand why some prisoners succumbed to illness, deprivations and torture while others survived. The most touching part of his account is a time when he remembered his wife while walking and working in the camp. He wrote: “Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness…Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.   A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth - that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love.” This passage is even more poignant because his parents and his pregnant wife all perished in the camps.

Man’s Search for Meaning strikes a perfect balance between exposing injustice and horrors while offering a concrete way for people to face the worst possible events in their lives. Contrary to most of what we are fed these days, Frankl doesn’t advise to think positively or to “believe in abundance”, but suggests finding meaning in our suffering if we cannot fight to avoid it. He also suggests focusing on the future, on what we will do once the worst is over. This is incredibly important as many books talk about focusing on the present which is not very helpful if you are truly living through some tough times and cannot change your situation. When in deep distress, sometimes the only thing we can do is feeling hope for the future while giving a meaning to what’s happening to us that will help us survive.

The second part of Man Search for Meaning is one to read over and over again. Instead of recommending balance and equilibrium, Frankl states that what people need is “the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.” This goal is not to be found solely in the mind, but by taking an active part in the world. And so again this book really resonated with me because it included the wider world, events out of our control, sadness and suffering, as well as calm, happy and abundant times. He is critical of the belief that we can just be happy, and writes that we need a reason to be happy. Often the belief that one has to always feel optimistic and happy can in itself bring about depression and feeling of being inadequate. He also doesn’t always expect a happy ending or suggests we need to believe in one. For example, when he talks about being unemployed, he acknowledges that being unemployed often leads people to feeling useless. Frankl, though, doesn’t recommend “thinking positive,” but suggests volunteering and helping those less fortunate, so that we might regain a bigger sense of purpose in our lives, and by feeling useful again, by helping others and opening ourselves to humanity, our mood might improve and we might better cope with the search for employment. Purpose and meaning in life should be about something bigger than ourselves or about other people. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t take care of ourselves, but our relationship to bigger values and our love for other people and from other people are the things that can really carry us through the toughest times.

This is definitely a book to own and to read and re read, especially in those moments when life hits us hard and we can forget our purpose and meaning. It is also a needed reminder to reconnect with our sense of community, opening our hearts to others. Frankl doesn’t encourage or prefer suffering, but he includes it in his view of the world, acknowledging that we will all one day or another have to deal with it and gives us some tools to live through the hard, as well as the good, times.

"Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week. - George Bernard Shaw"

Marco and Lindsey, dancing, at the end of the night. Magical.

Flowers by Maria Philbin Floral Design

Paradise Ridge Winery has a stunning view!

Marco and Lindsey’s Wedding at Paradise Ridge Part Three

And here are some of my favorite photos of Bride and Groom from the day:

Thank you for all these wonderful vendors who made this happen:

Venue: Paradise Ridge Winery

Flowers: Maria Philbin Floral Design

Cake: Costeaux with floral arrangement by Maria Philbin

Make-up/Hair: It’s a Date at the Powder Room

2nd Shooter: Christopher Mackessy

Lindsey on her way to her wedding.