because small happens more than big | Huntsville AL extended family photo session

The purpose of this blog post is NOT to talk about how many of my sentences start with “I was listening to this podcast . . .” (What can I say? I llooovve a good podcast!)

But I WAS listening to a podcast this last week, and the host and guest were talking about this idea of what they said Sarah Bessey calls “the ministry of being easily pleased.” They discussed how maybe the pandemic has caused some of us to face what happens when things get a little quieter in our life and in our spirit.

And how maybe we can start to ask ourselves some different questions at the end of a day that aren’t so performance-driven. (Way easier said than done, right?)

But this idea speaks to me, that, as they phrased it, we can tell our “aliveness by our awareness and joy in smaller and smaller things.” (Yes, I actually took the time to write that one down!)

Wow.

It feels like for so much our lives, we are pulled to do MORE, go BIGGER, dream HIGHER, push HARDER. And there are certainly times and places for all of that achieving and excelling!

But when we’re talking about joy, it does seem that as we get older, we find that it is gratitude for the smaller and smaller things that truly bring joy. And it can be a hard mental shift to make.

But I wonder . . .

If we WILL work on being delighted more by the simple and small, maybe we WILL actually be more delighted? Because wouldn’t it make sense that small things happen more frequently than big things?

Big delightful things are . . . well, delightful! But they truthfully just don’t come around as much.

But the small delightful things . . .they’re everywhere if we’ll shift to giving them some more attention.

So maybe less of

Did I get enough done today?

How much of my to-do list got checked off?

Was I successful/competent/productive today?

{Are the answers to these questions ever enough?}

And more of

What is the SMALLEST thing that brought me joy today?

I don’t know, could be the start of something new!

And now I’d like to share a gorgeous extended family photo session from last year that I hadn’t gotten around to sharing yet. So many small joyful moments between this precious family! I am so glad they have these images because now they can remember the moments over and over again!

If you’re looking for a family photographer to capture YOUR small moments, let’s chat!