Things change. Fast. It’s easy to forget that when we’re in the midst of a rough week at work, a fight with our spouse, or a child’s tantrum, but it’s true. As more years add up in the rear-view mirror of my life, the impermanence of everything in our world gets more and more airtime in my mind. For me, it can be easy to slip into a state of sadness about this when I realize how fleeting some of the special moments of my life are, especially those involving my daughter, who changes and grows on a daily basis. We can get caught up in clinging onto these moments, trying overly hard to capture them and hold on to them – but that only takes away from our experience and enjoyment of them. I try and find balance with this, but as an amateur photographer, it’s tough – I’m always tempted to get the camera out and start clicking away during any sort of celebration or special event, but I realize how that can limit my ability to embrace and enjoy the moments I’m trying to capture, so I try and use some degree of moderation (with mixed results, admittedly.)

I’d been giving some thought to this on Christmas evening after watching my daughter open and play with presents earlier in the day. She’s not quite 2, and actually didn’t even open all her presents, because she got caught up in playing with the few she did open. Beyond the fact that the unopened gifts effectively gave me a head start on shopping for her birthday, it was also another case of my daughter as teacher as she showed me how to embrace the moment by taking time to enjoy what was in front of her instead of racing on to the next thing. While this was on my mind, I ran across this post from Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber. (If you’re an Apple fan, you probably already know about him – but if you don’t, I highly recommend his blog.)

Everything changes – both the good and the bad. Remember that. Embrace the good while it’s there and don’t take it for granted. Don’t get too caught up in the bad, it’s only temporary. Or, to quote Jann Arden’s song “Into the Sun”:

“Hold your head high,
Keep a smile upon your face.
You’ll be gone before you know it.”