When I was travelling through Yellowstone, I snapped pictures like a mad woman. I wanted to be able to remember it all exactly how it was. Although I might be able to put my photos together and create a flipbook of my entire trip, the photos somehow just couldn't capture it all. I finally put my camera in my lap and just soaked it all in, out from behind a digital screen. And even now when I show my photographs, I always explain "These pictures are pretty, but in real life it is just absolutely gorgeous." That's the thing with photos. You get the picture, but not the full moment. You miss the crisp fall air blowing through the pumpkin patch, the sounds of the adults in the background doing anything to get the kids to smile, the smell of hot cider on Christmas morning (or wassail as my mother calls it). And while photos may not capture it all (like my sister with her eyes actually open) the beauty of photographs is that they remind us of what we love. When I miss my friends from college, I scroll through albums of my iphoto library - back when my life was viewed in terms of semesters instead of quarters and when the word "summer" was used synonymously with "break". When I miss my grandparents, I sit in the floor at my parent's house and carefully turn the pages of old, browning photo albums giggling at the hairstyles and outfits that were supposedly cool (err... groovy) back in the day. My mom laughed at me the first time she came to my condo becuase I have a picture of her right beside the kitchen sink. She said "Great... now you can think of me every time you do the dishes." It's true. When I wash dishes I always look at mom's picture and really, really wish she were with me. But when the photos fade (or the hard drive crashes) the memories behind the photos are what really stick. So in addition to my goal to take more photographs, I have made it my goal to take more Moments. It may be in the middle of the ordinary, the expected, or the beautiful but sometimes I just take in a deep breath and blink my eyes slowly hoping that the shutter in my mind can somehow capture the moment and that the memories will hang permanently on the walls of my heart.
Because what you see in a photograph reminds us of the stories beneath them:
Having my birthday dinner with my family - Of course my sweet mom put a candle in a bowl of fruit since I am the complicated one that does't like desserts...
Getting lots of mail - For once it is all actually addressed to me...
Winning my Fantasy Bashelorette pool - I knew it was J.P. all along...
Reading books with my nephews one last night before they move to a different state - Using my scariest gorilla voice...
Thinking I'm going to get a kiss from my sweet nephew - But getting tackled instead...
Getting a long over-due visit from a best friend - And still knowing what each other is thinking at all times...
Hanging out in my hometown with old friends - and feeling just like we are in high school again (with the addition of a few spouses and babies)...
Dancing my heart out at a Keith Urban concert - and knowing that my best friends are doing the exact same thing right beside me....
Take a moment to breathe it in. No flashes. No batteries. No cheese. No double chins.
Just Moments - Beautiful Moments...
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