Bearing Beautiful

an experiment in bearing it all

Tammi, emboldened by all of you and the many women who have walked this path before, wants to document her journey. That's part of why we created this website. But words are limited. 

Words can point to a thing, but can't fully show you. 

And so Tammi wanted images. She wanted photographs of her journey, as it's mapped out on her body. Scars that remind her daily of her battle. Beauty that reminds us daily she is winning.

These are some things only photos can say.

So the day after Buff closed his studio and moved his photo equipment into the home, there's a very good chance he took the best, most difficult photographs of his life. Photographs of his wife's battle with metastatic breast cancer.

And so we warn you, before you proceed, that the photos in this collection are beautiful, and challenging. Some of them are painful to see. But we believe they are important.

They are important, because behind the armor of everyone who lives with cancer, there are scars. And it's tempting to keep the armor on with platitudes and colorful ribbons. But at the end of each day, the fighter must confront the mirror again, and see the things that only her eyes will see. The scars, the lines, the roadmap of cancer. Things that threaten to name her as hurt and broken. 

And so she has a choice, we all have a choice. To keep the armor on and scars hidden from all but self. Or to take it off, bare it all, and allow the truth to claim us.

Everyone's choice will be different. And no choice is wrong, because this journey is unique for each who walk it. But Tammi found that by allowing her scars to be seen, some power shifted. The things that threatened to call her broken had no power when revealed in the light. The wrinkles, signs of another day lived and laughed. The burns from radiation, another battle won. The scars, signs that what was hurt is now healed.

Scars aren't only the result of cancer. They come from many things. And Tammi wants you to see that she's claiming hers and naming them beautiful. She's doing so publicly, with the brave hope that it might help you claim your own. And she's doing it while smiling and crying at the same time, because letting the armor down is hard, and holy.

Tammi's scars are her own. Consider yours. Do not be afraid. Bare them when you're ready. And if you do, make sure you name them as your Creator would, beautiful.