I was recently on a flight coming home from a few days away. As we were close to home, about to land in Indianapolis, I looked out my window, and saw the most amazing, and vivid landscape of color that I had ever seen. It’s fall in Indiana and growing up here, I have seen the colors before, but maybe I had never seen them from the air, or I had just never stopped to appreciate the beauty. I instantly grabbed for my phone and began taking pictures. Nothing I was taking was capturing the beauty of what my eyes were seeing. I wasn’t happy about this. A couple of days after I returned home, it rained. After the rain came a beautiful rainbow. You could see the entire thing, other than where it started and stopped. Again I ran for my phone, but nothing was capturing the beauty of what my eyes were seeing, just like the day on the plane. In that moment, something said deep inside of me that some things are supposed to be seen and felt, and not captured with a camera.
How often do we miss out on life’s little moments because we’re too busy grabbing for our phone to take a picture? A picture that we will most likely never look at again once we post it to social media? My guess is often! Why is it that we live in a world where everything must be posted? I’m just as guilty, so I am not preaching anything to anybody out there! We are all guilty! I’m just wondering what would happen in our lives, and to our relationships if we simply stopped for a minute, took a deep breath, and actually let ourselves enjoy the moment. What if we didn’t care if we posted some masterpiece photo. Now, if you’re a professional photographer, totally different situation! I’m just simply saying that life is passing us all by little by little and we’re not enjoying, not appreciating the beauty that is all around us. We’re not truly enjoying our time with friends and family because we’re too busy trying to capture the perfect photo. Is this resonating with anyone else today? Maybe it’s just me. Maybe this message is just for me, I don’t know, but it was a wake up call of sorts.
I for one plan to, from this day forward, to start making a conscious choice to enjoy the beauty of nature a little more. I plan to start enjoying my time with family and friends a little more. I plan to stop caring so much if I have the perfect photo to capture for the world, but rather bask in the beauty of the moment, and truly feel it, and savor it. It’s more important to me at this point in my life to know that when I come to my final days on earth, I actually lived life rather than having to admit that life lived me. I want to be proud of the amazing landscapes my eyes were blessed to behold! I want to be proud that my relationships in life meant more than a single photo for a bunch of strangers who will never be able to feel what I felt in that moment. I hope today that you will join me, and start living your life a little more! The small moments count, and add up to the really big things that will fill your memories forever! No phone or camera will ever be able to capture those feelings!
With love for you all,
Shauna
Shauna's Sisters 