Take Pictures With Your Heart

Last weekend I took a road trip with two of my best friends, David and Brenda.  I plan to write more about this trip in a later post, but for now I would just like to touch on a few words that stuck in my mind.  Those words were “take pictures with your heart.”

Guided tram tour

We spent Saturday at a gorgeous nature park in Southwest Missouri, Dogwood Canyon.  With countless waterfalls, bluffs, streams, and pools,  this park is truly breathtaking.  We chose to take the two hour guided tram tour, which took us directly to all of the beautiful locations in the park.  To our tour guide, Roxy,  this was clearly more than just a job for her…it was her passion.  She spoke excitedly about the peace that she finds within the canyon, and that she often rides her bike through the canyon on her days off.

Throughout the tour and at all stops, nearly everyone on the tram had their cell phones or cameras out to capture the memories.  As we stopped to take pictures of a beautiful reflection bridge,  Roxy made the statement that, although she loved to see all of us taking so many pictures, she wanted to remind us to always remember to take pictures with our hearts as well.

That one little statement almost brought me to tears…

Here we were in a place so stunningly beautiful, breathing in the cool, crisp air on the first day of fall…but it took the words of a tour guide with an obvious passion for nature to bring me into the moment.  This moment was a moment that I’ll never have again.  From that point on, I put my phone back in my pocket and simply took pictures with my heart for the rest of the ride.

Appreciate the Moment

I haven’t been able to get those words out of my head, even after coming home.  Her simple words really made me think about things.  How many real moments have we lost because we are too busy trying to take pictures or videos?  Concerts, sporting events, weddings, birthdays..you name it, we’ve got our phones out.  Of course, we want to capture the moments to have forever, and I will continue to do so.  But, thanks to a sweet little lady named Roxy, I plan to intentionally live more in the moments of life.  I plan to be present, and to not ONLY take pictures with my phone.  I plan to also take pictures with my heart.