Smiles in Photographs

In the Tree house: Smiles in photographs

By: Samantha Stroube Daviss

I heard the best quote one time from a movie…

“It’s the smiles in the photographs that keep us turning the pages, but everything that happens in between those pictures is life”.

When I heard that, it hit me like a ton of bricks. We all do it, we watch movies, or look at photo albums and remember those moments filled with smiles; or think our lives will be and should be as perfect as they are in the movies. But what we forget is those people aren’t living, they are just acting out a story for us for an hour and a half.

The smiles in the photographs may have been taken immediately after a huge fight you just had with your husband on Thanksgiving Day for his lack of ability to notice that the trash is full. Or that picture of your family in front of the Grand Canyon just after you finished getting on to your two boys for running up to the edge of the canyon at mach 3 and scaring you to death.

So the pictures are always nice to look at and reminisce what you did or where you were to bring you to that point. But remember, it’s the 25 hour car ride with your husband who won’t stop and ask for directions and your two kids in the back seat constantly screaming at each other that is worth living. It may not sound like fun on paper, but if you really sit back and think about the car ride and the memories you are building, those are what stick with you forever.

Not too long ago, we took our kids up to Yellowstone National Park. To be honest I was kind of dreading the trip. It was going to be a long flight with a baby and a bored 8 year old, and then a few more hours in the car. But it turned out to be one of the best vacations I have ever taken, because I got to see the park through my little boys’ eyes.  We saw bears, and elk, and of course the geysers. There was lots of complaining about the sulfur smell, which made me laugh, because I remember going with my parents at around 8 years old and all I did was walk around with a shirt over my nose because of the stink. So needless to say the trip was worth it, and to see the world through my kids’ eyes is priceless.

In fact just the other day, my oldest asked me when we were going back to Yellowstone. So as a parent you know that when they want to go back it was a huge hit. So treasure those moments, treasure all the life experiences that happen in between those photographs. Because the pictures really aren’t us living our lives, they are just moments of us captured in time.

Remember: It’s not how many breaths you take in life, it’s how many situations that take your breath away— is what life is all about.

Life is not perfect, nor would you want it to be, it is all the activities and events filled with frowns, smiles, tears, and giggles that make all the photographs worth keeping. Because you actually know the people in those pictures, and that’s what makes you wanting to keep filling the pages of that photo album.

We all tend to be in such a hurry these days, that we forget to set a little time aside to just crawl into bed with our kiddos and fall asleep with them at night, we are worried about sending that email, or missing our favorite show. But, it’s moments like those that you will never get back, so stop and enjoy the simple things in life; you never know when it could all be over. Because one day that little toothless smile that once filled your photo album will move away and have his own photo album to fill and his ever present smile in your book will become fewer and farther between.