Guest Post {Beryl Ayn Young}

March 21, 2012 By Franchesca 2 Comments

I am thrilled to have my friend, Beryl guest posting in a Q&A post today :) SO FUN! I am soooo excited about her newest class, which she talks more about in the post.

spacer

Considering your journey on grief and healing what is the one thing you would share with a newly bereaved mother that you wished you had known early on?
I would look her in the eye, hand her a lovingly prepared note, and share the gift of community with her. I wish I had known of the beautiful women out there ready to embrace me and connect with me on a deeper level than I ever imagined. Women who had been in my shoes and walked the lonely road I was traveling. We only lost our Bella 3 years ago in 2009 and believe it or not many of the resources we know and love today didn’t even exist then.

How has photography impacted your journey towards healing?
Oh gosh, it’s molded me into the person I am today I have a story I think will help you to visualize the true impact it’s had. 4 months after Bella was stillborn I was invited to a baby shower for one of my closest friends. This friend had traveled across the country from CA to VA for the event. It was her first baby. If it had been anyone else I would’ve said no. I would’ve crawled under the covers and stayed in bed. I would’ve enjoyed a pity party for one. But this was my best friend. I couldn’t do that to her.

I went to the shower but I brought along my camera and allowed it to be my protection. Protection from the sympathetic stares, from the boisterous small talk about babies and children, and from the smiles, laughter, and celebration that felt so foreign to my world.
Photography allowed me to interact and continue living in this world while having a safe place to hide too. Little by little I rediscovered beauty in the images I captured behind the lens and my camera eventually taught me how to thrive again.
spacer
Were you a photographer before losing Bella?

I was amateurish. 6 months before the loss I decided to begin a project called a 365 or Photo a Day project. That project lit the match, but her death sparked my hobby into something much bigger and much more passionate than I EVER imagined possible.

What is the most rewarding aspect of teaching your Illuminate course?
I get to see healing in action. I get to watch AMAZING transformations in only 5 weeks time. Women enter Illuminate missing their babies, sad for their classmates, and unsure of the future. They leave Illuminate inspired to create in honor of the children they’ve lost, connected to a community who immediately relates to their pain, and ready to tackle the uncertainty of their world. I get to give my students the gift of using photography for the rest of their lives as a tool in self-care, and I receive the gift of watching them leave my class in a better place emotionally than when they started.
spacer
I hear you are launching a new course, Radiate. What is your hope for this class and for whom is it built?

Yes!! This class is built for the woman that loves taking pictures, needs an outlet to finally put herself at the top of her priority list, and wants to learn photo editing techniques (using free online software) in a no nonsense easy to grasp format that will stretch her personally and creatively. This class is going to be SO. MUCH. FUN.

I’m so super stoked about it, that I have a freebie download that gives a sneak peek into the class, my own struggles with self worth (how I ended up at the bottom of my priority list), a sample Radiate photography lesson, and an invitation to a super secret online webinar happening in April where I’m going to walk attendees through the #1 editing technique I am constantly asked to share.
spacer
Favorite post that you would like to share with us?

This is one of my recent faves – my camera hacked into my blog account last week (how dare she?!) and wrote my blog post for me. Read it HERE.

www.berylaynyoung.com/2012/03/15/create-with-me-daily-doses-of-love-from-your-camera/

Share something (random, funny, etc) that we might not otherwise know about you… :)
The last house we lived in was on Beryl Terrace. No joke, my name is Beryl and I lived on Beryl Terrace. And no, the street was not named after me, but that would be totally awesome if it was, eh?!

Be sure to check out Beryl on her blog.

You might also like:

12 Days of Christmas With You in Heaven {calling for Guest Posters!}
Guest Post - CHD Awareness Week
Guest Post {LilyWraps}
  • Share:
  • Email
  • Filed Under: guest post

    Comments

    1. 1
      spacer Stephanie Desjarlais says:
      March 21, 2012 at 10:04 am

      Great interview! Thanks to both of you!
      Stephanie Desjarlais recently posted..A Joy to Hold On Tospacer

      Reply
    2. 2
      spacer Tesha says:
      April 4, 2012 at 5:46 pm

      Oh I am happy I read this one also, I have been thinking about doing this coarse. I just picked up my camera again and I was quite surprised how happy it made me to shoot and edit. I am really thankful for your blog.
      Tesha recently posted..Resources that have blessed me.spacer

      Reply

    Leave a Comment Cancel reply

    *

    *

    spacer spacer

    Related searches:
    camera friend design project little
    gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.