Pictures: A Felicity Moment

“Oh look!” I squeaked as my friend and I past a break in the trees, “That’s pretty!”

Not thinking about it for much longer, I moved along.

My friend, who was actually engaged in the conversation, missed the sunset. He stopped and moved backwards to see what I had pointed out. It wasn’t until I was five paces ahead of my friend that I realized that my action was not quite right. Moving forward was not wrong, but not allowing myself to fully engage in that little beauty, seen in an unexpected place, it took away from something I could share with others. 

I do that a lot.

Good or bad, I’m going to move on quite quickly.

This moment happened a long time ago, but I think about it a lot. Why did I choose to point out the beautiful little surprise to my friend but not share that beauty with them?

It was not my ADHD that forced me to move forward.

It was the voice in my head, the voice society put there, that said, “You know…not everyone can see these surprises. They are too small. Only the big surprises, the big gifts, the big moments are worth spending any extra time on.”

By the grace of God, I received the gift of ADHD, a gift that allows me to notice any and all things in a space.

And yet, I chose to move on, not allow a moment to rest, and I rarely looked back on those little gifts ever again.

After that moment with my friend, I started to stop more often to take pictures of the beautiful little places. Notre Dame has a beautiful campus, but almost all of the pictures are taken at the same angles in the same places. That sunset? I saw it in an unexpected place at an unexpected angle. I may not be a photographer, but I have been blessed with the gift of “good eyes” as my advisor puts it.

So I stopped to take pictures of the little things I saw, not caring how weird I looked or how much time it took for me to snap a quick picture.

A few of my images are at the bottom of the page.

Now, we do not all need to be taking pictures of the beautiful world around us. Not because I want to be special or anything, but because I think there are images that need to be taken that no one is taking the time to photograph. These images are of the most beautiful part of Creation, the greatest gift of all:

You.

God created the world to reveal His glory to us, but we can find Him in each and every person we encounter. From the joys to the sorrows, we are all the most beautiful gift He gave to the world.

Dear Reader, do you not know just how wonderful you are?

There is this tweet that has been going around lately, one that reminds us that there is so much more to beauty than we see through our own eyes. I do not know who the writer is referring to, but you can tell they love the person they are describing.

Through the eyes of love, each person is beautiful

Because when we look at someone with the eyes of love, we look on them with the eyes of Christ.

This is not an easy task. We notice these moments we share with people, but we rarely take the time to let these moments sink in. However, this does not mean that we need to stop our entire lives and write down every moment we share with one another. All we need to do is take a moment to remember the little things, to acknowledge them, and to thank one another for being in our lives.

One of my favorite parts of Jim and Pam’s relationship on The Office is how when they want to remember something special, they make a fake camera with their hands. It’s a simple act, and yet it means so much.

We need to be like Jim and Pam.

I’m not saying that we need to literally pretend to take a mental picture, but perhaps we should take time to take these mental snapshots.

This world is full of lonely people who do not see the love surrounding them.

Much like my pictures of the world around me that serve as reminders of the under appreciated pieces of creation, our little memories can serve as reminders of all the love we have around us. So we grow in love, and the world becomes more beautiful.

Perhaps this is why I call ADHD God’s greatest gift to me:

The little things of everyone around me never stay in my working memory, but I remember them in my heart for a very long time. They are not the most noticeable things about a person, but they are just as important to me.

One of my old undergrads used to hug at an angle that lifted me up from the ground, both literally and emotionally. One my brothers bounced when he could play first player and set up the games, which was the first of his many moments that remind me of bright future as a leader. One of my friends smiles with the wrinkle in his nose when something is funny and without a wrinkle when something is sweet.

We all have something small yet inherently beautiful in our movements, in our actions, and in our desires.

So stop a second, take a picture, and share it with the world.