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31 Days of Five-Minute Free Writes: Day 3 - Capture

I went to Europe with my sister in 2013 as a celebration for my 50th birthday. The photo above is the moment it fully hit me that I was in London. We had been there two days and for some reason, as we crossed the Millennium Bridge it hit me - I am in Europe. I captured the moment and grasped that I was realizing a lifelong dream. I. was. in. London.

How often do we ignore these moments in our life and neglect to capture the preciousness of them? It doesn't have to be a major trip to a far-off land. It can be time spent with a parent who is telling you about his days in college some 65 years ago. It could be sitting in a book club gathering when you realize that you have found a group of people that you can completely be yourself with. It could be when you wake up one day and don't feel the longing for the life you thought you would have.

When I graduated from high school, my family took a trip to Hawaii as my graduation present. It was a magnificent trip full of beautiful sights and wonderful experiences. But because my boyfriend was in Europe at the same time, I didn't capture the moment that was this trip that I know my parents scrimped and saved for. Because I wasn't seeing the sights that had been existence for hundreds of years, I didn't capture the beauty of the trip I was experiencing.I didn't capture the wonderful gift that my parents had given me.

Capture is about appreciating the everyday in its mundaneness. It is about accepting your experiences without comparing them to those around you. Capturing what life has to offer is the key to capturing life in its fullest. It is about capturing what life gives instead of what we want. We must be willing to capture what we are given instead of standing with open hands waiting for what we think will fulfill us.  So raise those hands and capture the offerings of life!
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