Today I was walking out of the woods. Dusk was approching and the sun was doing this light shaft thing through the pine tree branches. It made everything look like I was in some other wood, in another world maybe, with fairies and talking possums instead of mosquitoes and fire ants. I neared the edge of the path about to step out of this land into the big, sun lit field. I stopped in my tracks, my eyes catching the light glinting off a spiderweb a foot in front of my face. A nearly translucent net, it sparkled as I moved my head from side to side, trying to get a better view of it. My first instinct (as it is when I see anything beautiful) was to take out my phone and attempt to take a picture of it. But try as I might, my poor Sony Ericsson could not seem to see what my naked eye could. I took a picture anyways, but came out as… nothing. Maybe if I had a good camera, or at least a real camera, I could have captured it.
For as long as I can remember, I have been a sentimental freak. I kept everything as a kid. I obssesed over memory boxes, journaling and scrapbooking as a teen. I think I was born with this nagging feeling that life is so quick, and there so many beautiful and important moments, and if I don’t capture them, they are not really real.
I want to notice things. I want to stop and see. I don’t want to see things through the lens of technology and how it runs my life.
Are you ever in the middle of something and have the need to twitter, or you congratulate yourself for thinking of a witty facebook status update?
The capturing of my life experiences validates them. This weird tech-culture doesn’t help. Facebook is my friend and enemy. If you look at the numbers on my facebook page, it is ridiculous and probably abnormal. (80 photo albums, 98 notes, 735 friends! How the heck do I know that many people???) It’s not because I have no life, but simply because my life is so full and my need to capture the beauty of it, haunts me at times.
Lately, I am letting go of that.
Lately, I can chose to breathe in the moment, and simply relish it without having this incessent need to record and share it.
Because some moments are too precious for pictures, or words.
Some things, like a spider web catching a glint of light, are too fragile, and if you try to capture them, they will break.
Sometimes, it is better to just stop and see. Really see. Sometimes, that’s enough.
brookelouvier.com 
Beautiful.
The grace of God is everywhere. We only need to stop, open our eyes, and breathe.