What is the last picture you took?

What is the last picture you took? 

My in-laws have this great home in the mountains of North Carolina. My son loves to go to the cabin.  This photograph is of our recent trip there and he is playing on the community playground which looks like a really awesome tree house.  I have pictures of him on this slide from virtually every trip we have made in the last two years.  Once he has outgrown this particular activity, maybe it will be fun to print all of the pictures together to document how he has grown and changed.  

He played hard all weekend on this trip.  Our first day was wintry mix and rain at its finest and he spent hours building creations out of magnet tiles, crafting art work, and building pillow forts.  The second day was much more mild and we ventured out for a hike after breakfast.  This little trooper went almost the entire two miles without tiring.  Later in the afternoon we walked around the lake and played on the playground you see here.  He definitely got "mud butt" as we called it, but well worth it to see him enjoying the outdoors.  

What this picture represents for me is that each time we come here, we are creating memories with family and friends.  Particularly for our son, he will grow up with a fondness for a place that seems magical to his eyes.  A place where you wind through the forest and see woodland creatures and "fairy houses" in moss covered tree roots.  A place where it can snow in April.  A place where you can pop movie style popcorn and eat ice cream out of fancy bowls. a place that seemingly never runs out of s'mores for the fire pit and a rocking chair that fits just right.  A place to string Christmas lights on the bunk bed and snuggle with a stuffed bear twice his size.  

We live in a time where so much of the "good things" in our lives are seen through the lens of social media.  We want to share what delights us with our friends.  Sometimes this causes our impressions of each other's lives to be skewed towards perfection.  We think to ourselves, "wow I wish I could travel that much" or "I wish I could cook a beautiful dish like that" or "I wish I could be that fit or that well-dressed."   This causes so much anxiety among people, and so much perfectionism that can never be achieved.  Maybe it's because we've stopped truly talking about what it is that we are sharing. Not to mention, we don't want to post about the negative things because we choose not to make ourselves vulnerable to the idea that we are imperfect.  

So, for all of these precious things I've shared with you about this photograph and what it sparks for me; the truth is that we had a meltdown the first night because he was so tired and he didn't want to go to bed.  And he sat on my lap in the bathroom floor for five minutes before brushing his teeth.  And in the process of all that creative fun, we lost a very important Lego piece and cannot finish our dinosaur.  

But in the end, we will not remember that stuff as much as we will the endless giggles from being chased around the great room or the declaration that he must be the leader as we walk the trails.  In life let us always strive to be mindful of the memories being made, and make them count.