I almost missed one of my Top 20 Moments to the impulse to capture it so I’d never forget it.
Four and a half years ago, I went to the Outer Banks. I arrived late in the afternoon and decided to hit the beach for a long walk. I headed south, saw a wash of purple in the west that signaled incoming rain. Still, I walked for a half hour or so before heading back. About halfway back, I saw the beginnings of a rainbow. A good harbinger for my trip, I thought.
This rainbow seemed particularly vivid to me, and it continued to grow…or reveal itself…until it spread from one horizon to the next.
Absorbed in the miracle stretched above me, I began to see what was surely a trick of my imagination: a second faint shadow of color arcing just above the first rainbow. As I walked, the second rainbow grew more vivid and more visible in the late-afternoon sky. I sat down in the sand to watch it as it also stretched from horizon to horizon.
Soon, everyone on the beach became aware of what was happening overhead. The sky had begun to spit rain, but nobody left the beach. Everyone was too busy pulling out cameras and cell phones to capture what felt like a once-in-a-lifetime photo op. For a moment or two, I questioned the wisdom of just sitting and watching when I could be running back to my condo for a camera.
But it came to me that in their frenzy to snap photos, some of the people on the beach that day were missing the moment itself. And no photo could ever recapture that scene, visually or emotionally or spiritually.
During this month away from Facebook, I’m realizing how often my first thought when I have a memorable experience is how cool I can make it sound for my FB friends. I am, in effect, taking myself out of a moment that can never be captured and projecting myself into a moment when I’ll try to do just that in words that will no doubt be entirely inadequate.
I wonder: If the skies opened and Christ stepped into view, how many of us would lose ourselves in Tweeting it or updating our status or grabbing an image on our I-Phones, never realizing what we had just given away by not being present for that precious moment?
To be present, truly present, in my life is something I strive to accomplish, and more often than not, I miss the boat. Thank you, Peg, for reminding me what gifts I receive when I accomplish it.