January 21, 2015

"I have always, essentially, been waiting...


...Waiting to become something else.
Waiting to become that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming.
In my head, I was always one step away...



"Waiting"
Boston, MA


...In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the college version of myself,
the one my mind could see so clearly.
In college,  the post-college "adult" person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized.
Then the married person, then the person I'd become when we have kids...and then grandkids.
And through all that waiting, here I am.  My life is passing, day by day.

John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."
For me, life is what was happening while I was busy waiting for my big moment.
The Big Moment, unfortunately, is an urban myth for most.
Some have them, in a sense, when they win the Heisman or become the next American Idol.
But even that football player or that singer is living a life made up of more than that one moment.
Life is a collection of a million, billion moments.

But this is what I'm finding, in glimpses and flashes:  this is it.
This is it, in the best possible way.
That thing I'm waiting for, that adventure.
Normal, daily life, ticking by on our streets and sidewalks.
In our homes, beds, dinner tables, dreams, prayers, fights and secrets.

Precious experiences.
It's liberating to stop waiting."

-adapted from Shauna Niequist
Cold Tangerines:  Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life




Sitting and waiting is one of the most miserable occupations known to mankind. But I kinda think womankind tend to do it more, and are better at it.





Here's where I "link up" today.

(click on image for description of Song-ography)
Next Tuesday's Song-ography title suggestion is "End of the Line (It's Alright)" by the Traveling Wilburys.
Come back and link up!

22 comments:

  1. Wow .... definitely food for thought and you just gave me a mouthful!!!
    I so enjoy your photos and posts.
    Thank you for being in the blog world.
    **hugs**
    diane @ thoughs and shots

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  2. That was lovely :) And yes.. the waiting.. I've been getting quite the lesson in that for the past few months. Thankfully my husband is really great at living in the moment and sometimes manages to force me to do it too..
    AJ @ Naturally Sweet

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  3. A great composition!
    My post at: https://hanshb.wordpress.com/

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  4. Great shot - such an interesting time - going off to college/college/adult life. As I approach 9 years since i graduated high school and 5 years since I graduated college it's amazing to realize where I am!

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  5. me too! excellent use of selective color (if one is allowed to say that in photography nowa days).

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    1. Haha..yeah, I don't use selective coloring very often. But sometimes my eye just views a photo that way. Not sure why the bad rap tho.

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  6. amen....but you must not have come to that point in life yet when all the sudden....a jolt awakes you.....and there are no more dreams to be had.....you realize that all the time you were dreaming of what it was going to be like once you bought your own home or when you added the room on or you redecorated the kitchen.....all that time.....those were the happiest moments.....the dreaming of what was going to be.....the hopes for a better tomorrow....only when tomorrow came, it didn't bring the happiness you thought would be obtained....so you dreamed of something else.....and then the moment in life comes when you realize....this is all you will ever be....all you will ever have....it goes down from here.....no more hopes....no more mountains to climb. And then you look back on your life, and hopefully, there are memories to sustain you....and hopefully, you realize....those were the good old days. The ones you couldn't wait to get out of.....the ones you wanted to leave behind....the tiny one bedroom garage apartment with space heaters and a leaky roof where you could blow smoke whenn you got out of bed.....it was actually fun because you had little worries other than to stay warm and dry, but you'd get up and go to Jack in the Box and 1 am and get two tacos and fries an never worry about the cholesterol or what you were doing to your waistline......those were the times you should have dwelled in and enjoyed while the time lasted.

    Anticipation is always better than the anticipated outcome. Louis Black did an entire album about that....and it's so true, it's sobering, even though it was comedy. I think it actually made me cry.

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  7. Lovely photo! Love the color and how it is colored to a B&W background. I want to learn how to do this!

    Dropping by from http://pixiedusk.livejournal.com/337309.html

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  8. A stunning photo! But I hope the text is to fit the pic, and not your life. I see the BIG moment as what is happening NOW in my life. What is otherwise left is to romanticize the past, or always looking to the future to have our dreams fulfilled.

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  9. Love the colour splash, beautiful edited image

    Mollyxxx

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  10. Lovely color in this photo and great sentiments as well.

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  11. Fantastic thoughts I believe.... Greatful shots.
    xoxo Heidrun

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  12. Wonderful insightful post and love the chair photo! ~ Elegant!

    Happy Week to you,
    artmusedog and carol

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  13. Love this post! "For me, life is what was happening while I was busy waiting for my big moment." Powerful line. I am guilty at times waiting for the perfect time, place, or thing. Then I realize it may never come, so it's best to enjoy what have. Not what I don't. Great reflection of life!

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  14. Food for thought. I think I spend to much time waiting. That chair looks like a good place to be.

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  15. This is such a correction for my own life. I have always living waiting instead of enjoying right now. I have always felt regret over wasted days wishing for the next best thing. Slowly, and surely I am starting to get that the best days are right now.

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  16. Excellent food for thought. True that “Time stands still best in moments that look suspiciously like ordinary life."
    Be Here Now! No other place to be.

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  17. --This photo reminded me of this poem!! x
    .

    ---The Red Wheelbarrow~~


    so much depends
    upon

    a red wheel (Lime Green Chair)
    barrow

    glazed with rain
    water

    beside the white
    chickens.---William Carlos Williams

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  18. That BIG MOMENT is an urban myth that is very hard to let go of.... I am still waiting, it seems, always for something. Your post is just what I was thinking about this morning

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  19. THIS IS IT!!! And NOW IS ALL WE HAVE!!! Getting back into the blog saddle. It's great catching up with you and all of your posts. Aloha

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