If you start thinking that only your biggest and shiniest moments count, you’re setting yourself up to feel like a failure most of the time. Personally, I’d rather feel good most of the time, so to me everything counts; the small moments, the medium ones, the successes that make the papers and also the ones that no one knows about but me. The challenge is avoiding being derailed by the big, shiny moments that turn other people’s heads. You have to figure out for yourself how to enjoy and celebrate them, and then move on. ~ Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life
Commander Chris Hadfield captured the imagination of the world by sharing videos and photos and even music from the International Space Station.
After retiring from the Nasa Space program and returning home, Hadfield wrote the book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life, about how what he learned as an astronaut can be applied to life in general.
It’s a fascinating book, full of wisdom, and the quote above was one of my favourites.
These words also describe the experience of contemplative photography, where everything counts and is celebrated, especially those small, ordinary moments that often go unnoticed.
Like that time while sitting outside in my backyard, working and reading. I paused and looked up. That’s when I saw the rim of light on these ties attached to our table umbrella.
Within a few minutes, the light was gone.
It was a small moment – but one filled with magic that added richness to my day.
** Books mentioned have Amazon affiliate links, meaning I make a few cents if you purchase through my link. I only recommend books that I’ve read.
** More on The Astronaut’s Guide to Life from Brain Pickings
It’s the small moments that often matter most:) Wonderful post Kim, and thanks so much for the lovely link to my post on Cmdr. Hadfield’s book. Cheers! Kaarina
Kaarina, you convinced me to read the book. I was worried I’d be disappointed. And, I wasn’t.
Thanks for the book recommendation – I have added it to my library request list. Your image is exquisite – the tiny threads illuminated by sunlight. A tiny moment yet one to remember.
I think any moment that we can illuminate is a good one- and I know this isn’t unique to me, but how many times have we pointed our cameras at something and had someone pondering what in the world we were seeing. That is such a great quote, because our lives are made up of a series of small moments and rarely do we get 15 minutes of fame if ever.
The small moments of our lives are tiny pearls, taken individually we don’t think they amount to much but they string themselves together and at the end of the day we are left with an exquisite necklace of experience and we wonder how it came to be. The answer is simple…one small pearl at a time!