An older woman was walking behind my family at the beach last night as the girls did cartwheels and then stopped to add a unicorn horn to a horse someone named Jake had drawn in the sand that day. One runs off because she is mad another kicked sand at her. Another comes to tattle. Our youngest, Freya is on her own journey getting sand literally everywhere as she makes sand balls and runs up to show us and then down to the shoreline to wash her hands in the saltwater. At one point, all three of them come back to Chris and myself with our dog Moose on a leash and hold our hands. All five of us in a row, just for one minute max. And then they are off again.
We turn around to head back to where we parked. We honestly have not made it that far on the beach. And the older woman yells to me, ‘You have such a beautiful family.’ And I smile to say thank you but she keeps going and says, ‘I was going to snap a photo of you all when you were holding hands as it was just wonderful with all of you and the dog and the beach. I just never know how people feel and did not want to be intrusive.’
I thank her and said, ‘I just got to see the photo you were going to take right there as you described it and for that, I am grateful'.
She smiled and we kept walking.
Grab a pen. Grab a journal.
Take a moment today to be a self-proclaimed photographer - be it snapping actual pics (iPhone counts, obviously) or mental images. Throughout your day, take note of what you choose to capture. At the day’s end, write about why those images moved you. Psst, these are where awe, inspiration and core values play.
Take a moment to go through your memories (again, mental snapshots of time held in the archives of your mind) from your childhood. What do you see, what do you remember?
Think about how paying attention and choosing to snap a photo is a key to presence in the art of noticing. Now start to think about what you want to notice in your life, write about it.
Notice the magic