After her husband died, fitness trainer Michelle Steinke says, she has one big regret: that she didn't take more photos with him. Though many of us probably wish we had more photos with a loved one after they pass away, Steinke says that she had actively avoided being in photos while he was alive.
In a post to the Facebook page for One Fit Widow, Steinke's website, she opened up about why she wishes she had let go of any of her own hang-ups to capture moments with her late husband.
"I suppose we all have regrets," she wrote. "We shouldn't, but we do. One of my biggest regrets is that I wasn't in many photos. My self-hate and loathing kept me from taking photos of my babies and photos with the man I loved."
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But hindsight, she said, is always 20/20.
"I can tell you now it was stupid," she wrote. "I can tell you my kids loved me regardless of my weight. I can tell you my husband loved me irrespective of my body."
The day he died, she said, all she cared about were the memories they made together — memories that she now realized she wasn't in photos for.
"I can tell you when he was gone and [our kids] started to grow I regretted not being in more photos and loving the life I was living when I was living it," she wrote, recalling that she avoided photos for the sake of not looking the way she wanted to in them.
Now, however, she realizes that "perfection is a myth. Even after I lost 70 pounds and found my fitness, I realized I still was far from perfect."
"You can always work on improving yourself but this moment will never come again," she wrote. "Don't waste it wishing you were more."
Her heartbreaking post makes a powerful point about self-love — while we won't always like the way we look, it's important not to let that doubt get in the way of the things that are important to us. As she wrote, "You are enough, right now, right as you are. Take the photos. Love your life. Don't regret what you can control."