EyesUpHeartOpen

If you met Candice today, you would meet a self-confident, self-assured, put together woman. She runs a successful wedding + event planning business from her home in Barbados, where she lives with her husband Jason, a native Bajan. Underneath her seemingly polished exterior are the scars you can't see: she was a serious burn victim at age 12 and has struggled with her experience and body image ever since. In this episode Candice openly shares her feelings on working hard to make peace with her experience and allowing it to shape the woman she is today. Super raw, lots of truth bombs and laughing, but filled with honest and compassionate conversation, Candice shares who she truly is, on the inside.

Aint' that the truth! Meet Dave Jackson. A former police officer turned professional photographer. He's a red-bearded, gangly straight shooter, and man, do I adore this guy something fierce. My buddy Dave has some stories to share, and some lessons to impart and we should give it a listen and hear how his life is all the way in Appleton Wisconsin. We need to know how he turned his life around, lost a ton of weight and started running races. How he lessened his stress by a major career switch and is currently reinventing himself and the life he lives with his girls and wife, Melanie.

In 2003 Sherri tragically lost her partner Brenda to suicide. After Brenda's death Sherri 'just needed to see that someone was surviving' and attended a support group for people who have lost a loved one to suicide. Since then she has become a co-facilitator of the group and remains active in the survivor + support community. She works hard to help shake the stigma involved with talking about suicide openly, since many people think that talking about suicide will encourage people to attempt it. If you are struggling and need help call 1-800-273-TALK or to text the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. You can visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at AFSP.org for a list of resources for those struggling or if you have lost someone to suicide. Thank you Sherri for sharing your story with us all. Remember, you are not alone XO

This Spring, DJ + Producer Zeke Thomas, son of basketball legend Isiah Thomas, came forward as a victim of rape during sexual assault awareness month. He was the first man to come forward publicly as a male victim of rape. Thomas came out in a major way: on Good Morning America with Robin Roberts and served as the first male ambassador for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.(NSVRC) The musician said that he does feel an added pressure as a man. "I 100 percent feel the weight of being a male, out front in rape and sexual assault who shared his story," he said of his role with NSVRC. "I feel the weight of that impact. The statistic of one in six men have been raped is a staggering number, and it's even worse for females. This is an issue in our country that we need to address properly."

"The most important thing in my whole life was to be a Mom." Sometimes being a parent is all that we dream of being, it's a role we know we were meant to play not only for us but for the children that we will parent. Meet Jennifer. Being a Mom was her dream, and after being told she at 26 she would be unable to have her own children, she decided to adopt two young, deserving children. What unfolded over the years for Jennifer and her family evolved into the stuff of nightmares for any parent.

"It's not just about sex and threesomes and wild times in bed. It's more complicated, there are feelings involved...but I am so happy and I don't want to feel like that's wrong." Meet Tony. Meet Bri. Meet Josh. They are all happily married to each other and living in a gorgeous old home in Connecticut. Bri + Josh are legally married and there was a symbolic ceremony uniting them both to Tony, of which I had the pleasure of photographing. It was an interesting day, to say the least, since not everyone present knew about the threesome, including Bri + Josh's Dad's. After the initial surprise of hearing that three people are married, settle in with the reality of what that looks like to three of the kindest people- how they aren't always accepted by others, including their families, and how that plays out for them, as told to us by Tony.

Settling in our lives and especially in our relationships + marriages has become a pretty commonplace event. Let's be honest we all know someone who has...and maybe it's even us. Meet Alison. Married to a man for 12 years with three kids, who wakes up one day and "...felt like I needed to work on the marriage and he felt like good enough was good enough and we have good enough so shouldn't you be happy? I felt like good enough is never good enough. You should be amazing at all times! We are human beings and we have one go-round and we should be amazing at all times." Come get inspired to stop settling, and be who you truly are.

"When you go through something like that you live differently because literally anything can happen at any moment, any day...I am lucky and happy and grateful to be alive. To wake up every day. Not everybody gets to do that." Amber Langlois was two months pregnant with two young children when her husband Eric Langlois, 33, of New Milford, went missing after a tragic fall off a cliff in Lovers Leap State Park on June 11, 2013. A massive search party, mostly coordinated by local volunteers from all over the New England area went on for a week before his body was found in Lake Lillinonah on June 18, 2016. Eric was a big part of my life as well. He was a good friend, and my business had recently acquired his photography business so that he could focus on what he loved most: creating beautiful photographs for his clients. His humor would make you blush, his photography style was unmistakeable and his love for his wife and children absolutely unmatched. Hie death left a giant hole in our wedding industry community in Connecticut, that will never, ever be filled. Thank you to ABC News for their news clip, and to my son Jackson who plays the music in the beginning and end of the podcast. Check out EyesUpHeartOpen.com for more information, pictures and news links.

Love Wins: A Grieving Mother's Journey Post-Sandy Hook chronicles the life of Nelba Marquez-Greene after she lost her 6 year old daughter Ana Grace in the mass shooting in Newtown, CT. "We have to make love win, throughout and in spite of all of this, just like we are doing with this grief."

I first met 'Boo' Annette Alston during the winter of 2015 when she wanted to do a photo-shoot to commemorate her finishing her 2nd fight with breast cancer. She wanted to show her scars proudly to all and say a hearty 'FUCK YOU' to cancer. This winter I got the call that Boo had cancer again. This time it was in her brain, her spine, her liver. Everywhere. And yet, she still shines her light so bright, warming everyone in its path.