What does an instant mean to you? Is it priceless? Does it have the power to stop you in your tracks? Alter life, even just for a moment? Hold you still when the earth keeps spinning?
Life keeps moving, but I get stuck in the moments. Moments that mean so much. Life is always on my mind. I have so many questions as I view the world through a lens and revisit through a photo. Pictures help me to “hold” that moment bc life moves so fast. Sort of a desperate attempt to freeze what is.
How do you determine if the moment is worth holding still for? Are they all worth it? Maybe not at the time. They may be insignificant, but you never know how important it just might be. You. Never. Know. I snap this photo. This photo is perfect and we all knew it immediately. Kathy’s angel; a moment in time. Life altered and changed, sometimes slightly and sometimes earth-shattering. Jake lives through so many; breathing life into others. Remaining here no doubt. Holding Jake in his tiny hands, our baby. Tripp is on an adventure with us; experiencing something he doesn’t grasp in his still small world. Fellowship, family, connection, community; hope, service, compassion. Soon he will realize how big the world really is. Those things will be embedded in him to help navigate. God willing.
A picture of a picture. Yet such a story to tell.
So much connection between these 2 boys, yet they missed each other in the physical world. And then I grasp how marked time doesn’t really matter; connection lives on. When you leave your prints on this world, someone picks them up and shares them with another, who shares them with another, who saves another soul. We have a picture to prove it.
There is a different beauty in suffering and loss when it creates miracles in the living.
Miracles that led to changes and new life. Recovering hearts and healing.
And now, in this time, 2 addicts raise a boy who lived the madness while also creating 2 more lives. Their world once marked with the pain of addiction now moves about in a world of Disney magic and dump trucks. Our prayer as parents: please let the cycle be broken. The cycle of addiction. But also God, please let the compassion for others continue and multiply. The importance of serving others and living in humility. Please let that live on. Let us continue to show our children the beauty in others; that stories may differ, but all hearts beat to a rhythm their own; unique and cherished. My past as an addict in the grips of addiction has a purpose. As I introduce my children to that world, at whatever pace makes sense, I am grateful to have walked with the broken. To have been the broken. To have loved the broken. I can take pictures of my kids living in a world where pain can be powerful and recovering from it can be utterly breathtaking. I can teach them by the stories and captivate them with the photos. Then, I can involve them by showing them the way and walking it together.
Jake in a picture. A picture of hope, love, and compassion.
Tripp in a picture, with a picture. Showing us that, yes, time moves on, but miracles stand still. Don’t forget to take pictures.
- Jenn in Ohio
