DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL THINGS AND APPRECIATE WHAT YOU HAVE
Well, yesterday was a day to remember. One that I will never forget. It was a tad stressful, quite unplanned, unorganized and FULL of bliss.
Somewhere in between a couple appointments in the morning, errands in the afternoon, the weather forecast changing, my sister and Nana visiting, realizing that it was Randy’s day off, my only possible day to plan family pictures around my busy season if we want any at all, and Dakota (the oldest brother) coming to spend the night, I thought that it would be a great time to get an updated family picture. I picked up two shirts at Old Navy for the oldest boys which matched off the top of my head what we already had in our closets. We rushed back home from picking the kids up in town from school. The rain was coming and had already started spitting on us as we pulled into the driveway. The kids ran inside with Aunt Haley and Nana and Randy and I drove off again to Owen’s parent teacher conference at school. I nervously kept looking out the window at the weather and kept praying for it to hold of. Just for a few more minutes.
We got home, got the kids dressed and went out to the backyard. Another year that I didn’t even get a ‘picture perfect location’ as I’ve always dreamed of having like I get to give to my clients, because again, I seem to always procrastinate on my own family pictures. Every single year. We stood in a spot where we had a colorful tree and ready to go. My camera was DEAD. Of COURSE my battery would be dead for our own family photos. Why wouldn’t it be? My heart was sad and sank to my stomach and I looked at Randy. Dakota isn’t able to visit us hardly as often as we’d love for him to and he was here with us tonight. We needed these moments all together. Tonight. We haven’t had this in so long…
I looked at my sister, shrugged my shoulders and smiled.
“Get out your phone!”
I didn’t even care. We were all ready and we don’t know when we will have this again anytime soon. With all of us here and with the nice weather especially. She put down the camera, smiled at me and nodded. Nana yelled, “Okay, here we go!” And helped to keep the spirits high, haha.
I had a conversation with someone yesterday who in the conversation had said “…we are not going to sweat the small things.” I didn’t know it at the time but I took that home with me. And right at this moment, it hit me. We are all together, we are all healthy and we have a great life. We may not be in a colorful park full of changing fall trees and my camera may not even be working. But we can make due with what we do have and still enjoy this time together. I’m writing this post to remind you, if you need to hear it.
Do not sweat the small things and appreciate what you have right in front of you. You don’t take a photograph, you make it. And the best kind of camera is the one you have with you.
So here are a few of my favorites. I’m so blessed for this entire session of cell phone images and the whole 20 minutes we spent running around our own backyard.
