We were surprised by four deer but we have no proof!

If you didn't see it with your own eyes and there was no digital photo to view, did it really happen? The frost was still shimmering on the grass in the lowlands when four deer wandered past last week. Morning sun backlit the wildlife making it a picturesque and pastoral moment.  Greg tried to alert me to the situation without triggering Kanti's interest but she picked up on the excitement in his voice and seconds later pandemonium broke out.  She spotted the deer, their white tails went up and they bounded away with the dog in hot pursuit.  Inside the house we were fumbling around with the phones trying to get that perfect photo.  It was all over in less than a minute without a single photo having been taken.

Imagining Four Deer
It had been a perfect life-by-the-swake moment that I wanted to share with you but it had vaporized and I was disappointed. I stood by the window thinking how strange it was that only moments before four deer had been grazing outside. We had seen one or two at a time quite frequently by the swake but to see four at once, so close, was a treat. I pondered taking a photo anyway as I looked out thinking if I hadn't seen it myself I probably wouldn't have believed how pretty it had been. All week the situation rattled around in my head.  It felt like a missed opportunity because I failed to get a photo.

 I wondered why the photo had become so critical to the story telling, and I started to do some research. Apparently I was not alone in my need for photos.  That need for photos had become a world wide phenomenon with the advent of digital photography and the ease of the smart phone camera. Mary Meeker's 2015 Internet Trends report indicated that we uploaded an average of 1.8 billion photos globally per day in 2014. Rose Eveleth of The Atlantic pointed out that was the number we uploaded, not the number we took.  We have become photo obsessed. Somehow I had been drawn into that obsession and was struggling with telling you about the moment of beauty because I had failed to record it in an image.

Today's blog is an act of rebellion against the photo obsession.  It is a call to belief and to imagination.  You will have to believe me when I say I saw them and you will need to imagine what it looked like.  They were here, they really were.  In fact they were standing right there out side the window down near the long reeds.  Close your eyes and imagine it. Then open your eyes and your heart to receive the moments of beauty that will cross your path this week.  When you experience a moment of beauty, add a comment and share it with us all.

Comments

  1. Sometimes I wonder if we are living our lives within an artificial frame. We sure miss a lot when we are constantly fumbling for our cameras to capture the moment. The moment is right there. Just enjoy it!

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  2. Hi - Crow Day One
    An artificial frame, that's an interesting description. I'm going to think on that one while I try to absorb the moments of this week!

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