The other night my friend Jason and I were driving home from an engagement shoot. He’d been helping me as a second shooter. We were in this discussion about wine, which, let’s be honest, is where most of our discussions lie.
I confessed my problem of having too many special wines (good problem to have, right?) and not enough good reasons to open them. It’s not that I don’t want to open them because because they cost more than your average tank of gas (if not two or three tanks), but because how each of those bottles came to be in my hands are all little miracles in themselves. I feel like those bottles deserve a special occasion to make their entrance into my world again and to dance and wow us.
That’s what he gave me some really awesome advice.
“Sometimes you have to make occasion.”
He went on to explain that looked like… Opening pictures from that wine trip. Calling the friend with whom you purchased that bottle and reliving stories. Etc. Etc.
What really threw me for a loop was the next day when my pastor in church gave the following example:
There was this couple about to be married at a destination wedding. Both collectors of rare and yummy wines. Several days before their wedding, the wife came around the corner and saw her fiancé packaging up a box of wine. When she realized he was shipping it to their wedding to be enjoyed at the reception, she asked, “Honey, aren’t we saving that wine for a special occasion?”
Uh…..?
Sometimes we wait and wait and wait for the perfect occasion when really TODAY is the day at the Lord has made. Not tomorrow. He made today.
It’s like the inexperienced golfer at the driving range who hits ball after ball after ball and then when he gets the bottom of the bucket, realizes “Oh shoot, I only have a couple of balls left, I better start getting my act together,” and starts to take his time hitting the remaining few. Then there’s the experienced golfer who understands he only has a finite number of balls and he takes his time on every single one perfecting his form and stroke.
Something I’m learning right now is to take my time on each ball, on each experience… that’s even though that interaction with your neighbor or your mother-in-law may seem mundane why not give it a chance to be a memorable one?
Slow done. And live your life.
Many of you know my sweetheart is assigned to an Air Force Base in New Mexico.
A few images from a recent visit where we leisurely enjoyed his quirky little town… :-)
