Living Joyfully...Editing out Life's Joy...

On our recent trip to the Bay Area for my 30th Birthday, we were driving through a beautiful stretch of land in the Napa Valley. I had my phone out, taking pictures, and looking at each photo right after taking it. (Does anyone remember the 90s, and that loooooong week waiting for film to be developed, only to get it back and realize none of the photos came out? Torturous. Anyway, I digress.)

So, I was looking at one photo in particular, and started editing it while we were driving. I was oblivious while cropping and changing colors, etc., until I heard "Wow, look at that!" By the time I looked up, whatever beautiful view had caught my husband's attention was in the rearview mirror, and I had missed it because I was so busy editing a photo I had already taken.

How often do I do that in life? How much time do I spend thinking about the things I would change in life, that I miss out on the good stuff right in front of me? The "if only"s and "what if"s that plague my thoughts take away my joy in the now. I'm so busy critiquing things in my life that I don't look up in time to see the beauty before it rushes past.

Life isn't easy. There are things I wish I could change. There are really hard, frustrating, sad, cruddy things I've had to deal with. But, even in all the difficult circumstances, there are good things too. Things I don't want to regret not enjoying when I had the chance.

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