when the world stood still...

I sat there on the sandy beach - the place that had been "my backyard" for the few preceding days - comforted by stroking the tiny stitches that made up each seam on the patchwork quilt under my fingertips. although the town that we were staying in was not my favorite place in the world, the view before me - at that moment - took my breath away. and I came to love it. the familiar lyrics, "I wish I could make myself believe, that planet earth turned slowly..." in the background tickled my ear. it was at that moment, as the towering trees gently swayed before me and the sun danced on fire on the cove's waters that I felt an indescribable emotion that evoked a pensive feeling of excitement, melancholy, and wonder all at the same time.

 have you ever had a moment where everything looks like it's happening in slow motion? or have you ever read in a book in which the character feels like the world has just stopped? for me, when this wonderful feeling overcame me, it was as though the earth stood still before me but for a moment; and a revelation swam before my eyes {not in images as most revelations are revealed} but thoughts - raw, pure, wonderful, sad thoughts. a thought I only wish I had the talent to capture in words and sun myself in for a very long time.

from my perception, the sun herself was gently slipping below the horizon - a scientific fact proven that the earth {and people on this tiny marble} were moving around the sun; not the "setting" sun moving around us. this simple fact is nothing extraordinary in itself but what a powerful effect it had on me as my world, as I saw it, paused abruptly. "I wish I could make myself believe, that planet earth turned slowly" - but that the sun right then before my eyes was "sinking" was proof that the earth didn't turn slowly. quite the contrary. it was moving at incredible speeds {67,000 miles per hour around the sun to be precise [roughly]} and time herself slipping mercilessly away as quickly as sand in an hourglass. 

I suppose I felt in that moment nostalgia for not only the past but the present and the future - if such an occurrence were possible. nostalgia for the past that can never be re-lived; for that present which was soon to become the past like that of the water's little waves retreating to the depths as swiftly and eagerly as they came to shore; and for the future, unknown but soon the be the present only to slip into the past. 

in fewer words, this little revelation reminded me of something I so often forget...

life is too short to be wasting it away on harboring ill-feelings over trivial matters. life is too precious that it cannot be stressed enough how it must be captured whether through words or photographs. life is so short that it needs to be lived and enjoyed as it is not just a mere line between birth and death, but a blessing that the Lord gave to be enjoyed to the fullest.

xoxo,
the girl in the garden.