This past weekend I got to spend documenting Weber’s baptism at 6 months old at St. Mark’s church.  On my way home after the celebrations, I was thinking to myself how incredibly lucky I am to be able to share in the beautiful and happy moments of people’s lives.  I read somewhere about a research study that’s revealed that happiness is contagious by about three degrees of separation. So what does that mean? “Researchers found that when a person is happy the network effect can be measured up to three degrees. Therefore one person’s happiness can trigger a chain reaction that benefits their friends, their friends’ friends and their friends’ friends’ friends’. The happiness effect can last for up to a year.” (click HERE to read the full article) If this is the case, I imagine that my clients will provide me with a lifetime of happiness.

Recently I’ve decided to be more proactive about documenting my own life.  I realized that I spend so much time creating and caretaking others’ memories, why not my own? Today I had the most amazing Saturday full of great food and even better family, and I knew I had to share! Vasili and my first stop of the day was baby Paige’s baptism at Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in Palos Heights.  I’ve officially decided that Greek Orthodox churches are both the most aesthetically beautiful and spiritual places, see for yourself.

And then after the baptism we visited Vasili’s Opa and he taught me how to cook Satarash (sah-ta-rah-sh) – a simple dish he makes often that consists of red peppers, garlic, onion, jalapeno peppers, olive oil and tomatoes.  Opa is 96 years old and full of stories – one of which (and also happens to be one of my favorites) he retold me today about how his first wife broke down crying once when they were first married because she didn’t know how to cook and she felt ashamed that she was a bad wife.  ”I say to her, ‘Oh honey, you will learn,’ and she learned.”  I hope that I am as full of life and good health as Opa is when I’m 96!