PHOTO OPPORTUNITY
Have you ever thought about the things that you experience in a month?
I often seize the time on a plane, as I did on a trip in early April, by reviewing and deleting photos which is how I started thinking, “March was exhausting.”
Captured in the March photos were 3 birthday celebrations, two Saturday Night sleepovers, one with 10 students and 1 faculty member from my husband’s college and another with two very active great-great nephews, hand holdings, play dates with the young ones, painting progression of pieces that I am working on, family visits and family dinners. There were sweet photos and videos of a father’s head laying in his son’s lap as the father tried to conquer a particularly difficult allergy/ sinusitis episode. March’s last week was capped with an epic out of town bridal shower, a son’s thirty-sixth birthday celebration, my husband ringing the bell to signal the end of proton therapy, performance of the next-door neighbor at my city’s symphony hall and of course the pageantry of Easter. It was an exciting, energizing, and exhausting month. Each picture made me smile.
What was missing in the album of pictures? The angst we experience during the allergy/ sinusitis episode - coughing while receiving radiation is a “no-no.” The drudgery of driving 45 minutes one way five times per week for the treatment in rush-hour traffic. Us, parents, and friends waiting for the ten-year old next-door neighbor to perform the final act of the school’s talent show - would she nail it or sing to the wall as she had 2 years previously? Me on a solo lunch date with two girls, one announcing just as the food is delivered a need for the potty. I can’t take one and leave the other unattended. What is one to do? My March pictures didn’t capture moments like these because I didn’t take any. Yet they are as interwoven into the fabric of March as the photos that were taken.
As I reviewed the captured happy moments, I wondered if they would have been as sweet had I not had the mundane, anxious, and angst mixed in. I don’t know. This I do know; life is a mixture of sweet and bitter.
I find myself taking less photos recently. They can distract from the moment. If I can remember the not- so- good without photos, why can’t I do the same for the good moments? I don’t have the answers for that either.
What’s my point? Life is more than a photo opportunity, but they are a great reminder of the great moments experienced. Don’t be seduced by them, they are just that – a moment. If one is to live a wholesome, healthy, and holy life, the coexistence of the good and challenging times must be embraced.
PONDER THIS THOUGHT—Photos are often the light that illumines the dark.
