When I wasn't daily involved back home, I was confronted with a startling fact...My family had lives without me! Their lives weren't put on pause until I returned!
OK...I didn't really think that their world would stop without me there. But, as humans, we tend to forget that people go on living and experiencing when we aren't there to observe it. It's almost as if we limit a person's life to that part of it which we see.
...And with social media, we sometimes see more than enough!
People invite us into their lives on different levels through social media. Some people share very little...keeping their life a mystery. Others share constantly...leaving their lives feeling like an open book. Still others share only the good times...choosing to face the difficult alone. We share parties, vacations, food, family, love... Whatever the case, when we share we open a little window into that mysterious part of our lives that may not always have an audience. Sometimes it feels like we know so much about everyone even if we connect personally very little.
Which brings me to this photo:
When our oldest daughter left for college, our youngest daughter was especially withdrawn during holidays. After all, holidays have traditions and the traditions in our family weren't the same without the whole family. (Things being the same is a big deal for her.)
In an effort to get her excited about something, we decided (a few years ago) to dress up and take a themed family photo. Seeing as how the pets are part of the family, we included them in the theme.
I spent weeks planning costuming for each member of the family...2 adults, 1 child, 4 dogs. Since we are a poor family, it required more creativity than just buying costumes. I had to make most of the costumes by hand and piece together the others with what I could find. What resulted was what we called our epic family photo (at least to us)! It was so us!
That started a new tradition...Our fall themed-costume family photo!
The next year we repeated the activity. We planned for many weeks in order to get all the details the way we wanted. As the one putting costumes together and shooting the picture, I felt so much pressure to get a result at least close to the "epic photo" of the year before. (As it turned out, I was satisfied.)
I didn't even got the costuming put away last year before my daughter already had the theme for the next year: zoo animals.
This year money was even tighter than before. I started out a few months in advance. I had 2 adult costumes, 1 teenager, 4 dogs and 1 cat. :) My daughter had selected an animal character for everyone the year before so now it was my turn to bring those animals to our family photo. Finding all the scraps of material that I could and purchasing only a few items, I was able to bring together eight costumes and accessory elements for the photo (no costume without at least some handmade element to it). All on a super-tight budget! The above photo was the result of our months of planning and creativity.
As I shared the photo on social media, I couldn't help but think about what people didn't see. Photos, taken at face value, just don't share the complete picture. When I looked at the photo, I saw so much more than anyone else would see...and those were some of the most important elements to me.
*I see a plan...a year in the making.
*I see a young girl who found a new family tradition that makes her happy.
*I see hours of hand-stitching costume pieces.
*I see months of detailed planning.
*I see my hubby cheering me on.
*I see my daughter's face lighting up with each new thing that I made.
*I see scraping up everything I could so that I didn't have to spend money we didn't have.
*I see looking for the perfect lit location only to miss my timing.
*I see me laying in the floor in agony only a few minutes before this was taken since I had injured two fingers (one with a chunk chopped out of it and us trying to stop the bleeding) due to them getting hurt while moving a prop. (Yes...That would explain why I missed the light that I wanted.)
*I see lists and sketches and my laundry room filled with costumes.
*I see the secret item added to represent each person's year. (Mine is the metal chicken that my family got me and I used onstage in a theatrical production early this year.)
*I see our family coming together in fun...smiling and happy.
*I see love...
While we may find photos beautiful, a lot of times the most beautiful part of it is not what we see with our eyes but what we feel with our hearts!
