little moments

Ahh, Little Moments, like watching three kids searching for shells. Do you remember the Brad Paisley song?

It goes something like this, Yes… I… live for …little moments…like that.

About a year ago, I started thinking about a family photo.  I pondered the idea and started imagining all the family against a beach background. Around Thanksgiving, I started telling all of my adult children that this was the only thing on my Christmas list. I would be happy to forego Christmas gifts, if everyone would make arrangements to get together down at the ocean and get a family photo this Summer.

Of course, they just patted me and agreed instantly that anything I wanted for Christmas would be mine. In the meantime, they bought me gifts anyway and promised to work it out in July when the younger children were out of school.

Have you ever had a secret wish that you were afraid to get too excited about because you didn’t want to be too disappointed if it didn’t work out? That’s how I felt. I wished for this picture I saw in my mind’s eye. It was not a new wish. Every time I saw a family together smiling against a backdrop of sea and sand, I wished harder.  I put it on the shelf in the back of my mind and didn’t give it much thought. How could that ever happen? It seemed like there were too many obstacles, too much distance, too many schedules, too much expense, just too much to overcome!

That’s where having three children who love you tips the balance of the scale in your favor! They were quietly plotting and planning just how to make it happen. My wish was their desire. They wanted to grant this because as they say, ” You never ask for anything and you are always so easy to please”.

I thought of all the things they would be inconvenienced by. The list got longer, the more I thought, so I convinced myself that it would be ok if it didn’t happen this year. Someone started asking me, “Which beach did you have in mind”? Then, the questions multiplied and got harder. “What time of day”? How do you want us to dress? Who will take the picture? Do you want everyone in the photo or just your children and grandchildren? Do you want the sand, seagrass and water in the background? Do you plan to be in the photo, as well?

As I thought about how to schedule a photo around everyone’s work schedules, beach traffic in the summer, availability of family members 3000 miles apart and the 7 month old’s feeding/sleeping/smiling schedule..it became more daunting. Did I mention that my kids live on the west coast and the east coast? Did I mention there are 4 children under 13? We have a mixed group- some who love having their picture taken and even more who do not. I knew this would truly be an act of love and definitely not something they would choose to do on the hottest day of the year!

Even though I didn’t arrange the photographer, dress the children,comb their hair, or haul babies across the hot sand in 90 degree heat, I was still as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I  wanted this to be easy for them. I second guessed myself and wondered how I had the nerve to ask for such a big “present”. I almost hyperventilated when I realized how far they had to trek out across the sand in order to park legally. They had been scouting out the locations and changing latitudes: longitudes quickly as plans changed. They were all adapting, coordinating and cooperating closely with each other while I was blissfully happy just to let them handle it.

Yes, it happened. As it all fell into place or more likely was pushed into place like using a shoehorn to squeeze your foot into a new pair of shoes, I realized how very special the moment was for me. It was not the picture that became my focus. That was incidental now that I recognized how much they wanted to please me with a priceless gift of themselves.

It was not easy, but it was worth it!! The results are stunning and personal. We all marveled how the color scheme coordinated so well, since I gave them the briefest instruction. Wear something white, khaki, blue or denim. The photographer took 107 photos with amazing skill and good will. As it turns out, she did it gratis as a friend of my adult children and joined in for my birthday cake. Yes, this Christmas gift ended up happening on my birthday celebration. How special is that?

The deep sense of wonder and gratitude that I felt as I looked upon my beautiful family, with the ocean lapping at their feet and the sea breeze lifting their hair was the “little moment” that I will experience again and again as I look at photographs scattered about my home and office. Who can ever forget this “Christmas in July”? This is a sweet memory I will hold near in my heart- a secret wish fulfilled!