Picture Perfect – the Missed Photo Op

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Musings from the author…May, you are a beast of a month and you swallowed me whole.

For those who missed me: Thank you. I missed you, too.

For those who never noticed my long absence: sounds like your May was much like mine. But here we are.

Welcome back.

My May was marked by events and special occasions. Family flew in from out of state, then it was mother’s day, followed by consecutive weeks of never ending musical performances and awards ceremonies at school. (Little side note: Had I been required to attend one more school function, I may have very well burned the place down. Once everyone left, of course.) There were grad parties, family dinners, the last day of school, and the much anticipated high school graduation. I put One More Truth on pause and gave the important events and people in my life my attention – fully and happily. Great times were had, new memories made, and I soaked it all in.

And guess how many photos I have of all of these special events? Very few! I always talk about taking more pictures when family gets together, but I rarely stop a minute to actually take any. My grandma visited for a whole week and I’ve only got one picture of my 4 children with their great-grandma – taken on the departure curb at the airport! Living in the moment is fine and well, but sometimes you have to pause the living so you can snap a picture of the moment. Missed photo ops can’t be framed and displayed, not to mention they don’t exactly fill a photo album.

The guest room was empty, the house was clean, the school schedule was over, and it was time to get back to One More Truth. But I had lost my writing voice in all the busyness (and possibly my mind) – and good heavens, was it ever hard to find. I thought about writing every single day and I even got words on paper most days. In fact, I stuffed a folder full of half-finished brainstorms, but I never sat down long enough to finish a post. My pause button was jammed and I was missing opportunities to write my word pictures. A stack of scrap paper scribbled with thoughts and ideas doesn’t exactly fill a blog page.

I asked my 13 year old to pray for me. She stared me down and said, “Maybe you just need to go upstairs and write instead of vacuuming.” Hmmmmm…smart alec or smart advice? My husband said something similar. So did my friend. But it sounded too simple and I had completely lost sight of simple.

We don’t usually question what’s important, but we have a lot of trouble figuring out what’s important when. That’s where it gets complicated. But when we don’t pause for priorities – the things we truly think and say are important – good intentions quickly become a mental gallery of missed opportunities. It’s far better to be overcome by the importance of our priorities than to be overwhelmed by many important things, and I often find I simply need to stop talking about the important things so I can do them instead. The end. Other important things can wait. It will be okay. No more missed opportunities. This is the mindset of living intentionally.

When you get lost in the busyness, ask your Creator to help you pause. Trust Him when it’s time to restart and allow Him to guide you one important moment and opportunity at a time.

 

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2 Comments

  1. Glad your May was filled with so many events of joy. But I am also happy that it is over, there is so much for one month.
    I am one that missed your posts while you were gone.
    Thank you for sharing.

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