Of Pictures and Video

Time passes us by at an insane speed.  Every year you'll think "Is it already May?  I thought the year just started!"  "Is it already Summer?" "Fall?" "Christmas?"  and before you know it, the year has passed.

Life is a cycle.  Our culture has imposed it upon us to celebrate certain "checkpoints" each year in a certain timeframe.  Holidays, birthdays, anniversaries... the last two months of each year are spent frantically looking for just the right Christmas presents.

Growing up, I didn't like it when Oma always wanted to take pictures of us at family parties or even just at dinner in some random restaurant when we were celebrating a birthday.  As we got older I learned to understand why she did so.  We change, we grow, and before you know it, some of us are gone.

When a life is over, all we have left of that life are our memories.  Our loved ones that were taken from us too early, our parents and grandparents who lived their lives fully, our pets that have passed on... we build our entire lives every single day, and reflecting on that, being able to revisit those memories, that's so precious.

There's a song in a musical (Avenue Q) that sticks out to me every time I hear it.  The song is about college reminiscence, and one character states "I wish I had taken more pictures".  That's how I feel about our little Bella, who we've taken lots of pictures but very little video of her as a pup before she got bigger.  She's amazing as her coat started out black, and faded to a light brown ever so slightly over the last 6 months.

6 months!  That's what I'm talking about.  Some days life drags on, but overall, the years will only get shorter.  I think that's because when you're 4 years old, your fifth year is 20% of your life, but when you're 9 years old, the next year is only 10%, and so forth.  So the younger you are, the longer a year feels, but as you get older, the years go by tremendously quickly.

That's not just it of course.  It's so easy to get caught up in the stress of life.  There's so much that we have to do every day that at the end of it all, life can pass us by.

So I suppose there's two things that I want to say here.  One, capture moments as often as you can.  You never know when a proud moment with someone you love may be the last great moment that you have together.  Two, try to cherish what you have when you have it.  It's too easy to take for granted things that feel like they'll never go away.  There is so much that life gives us.  Take a moment and enjoy it.