Thanks to smartphones anyone can snap shots of life these days. And each of us are caught by different moments of life to capture. My eye gets caught by doors, ceilings, textures, and ground/floors among other things. Smartphones have also made it easier to capture quick moments of friends and family to share with those not near - I personally have really enjoyed that particular benefit. Today for #SaturdaySnapshot snap a pic or two of the life that catches your eye and share it with people near and far.

So many small moments - words - actions - looks - lead to the moment you finally see captured by the lens. Sometimes you can see those moments captured, other times you have no idea what happened right before.  When my brother married his beloved my redheads were flower girls in the wedding. My youngest was 4. We missed naptime but she was hanging in there. As we were getting everyone ready for pictures she started crying. And no amount of pleading and asking and bribes was getting her to stop. Finally, as our last resort we pulled out the bag of fruit snacks and POOF the tears cleared up. She was hungry. OY VEY! If only we had tried the fruit snacks first or if only she had uttered she was needing a snack. So now we have wedding pictures of a blotchy faced flower girl with eyes still slightly damp. Not knowing the story behind the pictures of the cute blotchy faced flower girl might leave one to think she was pouting or throwing a fit for not getting her way or some...

Capturing a moment for memory is a balance between being present and part of the moment and disengaging just long enough to capture the moment. Conundrum.  My brother takes great photos except he's rarely in them - a complaint of my sister-in-love. Since having kids he's been trying to get into pictures more. His struggle is that of perhaps every parent - usually the mom for some reason. We get so wrapped up in capturing our kids moments and family moments that we forget to capture ourselves in them as well!  Not only does a picture capture a moment so it doesn't disappear but if everyone is in the picture then it keeps the memory of all those we love from running away as well. 

When we snap a picture it is always capturing the best of that moment. Smiles, joy, pleasure, beauty. But what if, without our knowledge, snapshots were taken of the moment - best or not? What if the snapshot captured the scowl, the tears, the confusion, the anger, the frustration? What if there were snapshots that recorded pain, discomfort, ugliness, and misery? Would that make our lives any less? If snapshots captured the whole of our lives, not just the best moments, I suspect that as we flipped through the albums we would get a better perspective on the whole of life - not just the happy, shiny moments. What's so beautiful about life is the mix of both the happy moments and the unhappy moments. They all come together to make quite a beautiful life.