“Just make sure it looks like you caught us talking sweetly to each other. I really like the light in here. This one angle of my bedroom looks like it could be on Pinterest, so can you take photos from only this angle? Also, make sure you don’t get all of the junk on the dresser (to the right of this photo) and only take these pictures from mid-waist up.”
RM Photography replied to me:
“Sure. Got it.”
I was so glad when she included this photo in our gallery. Wanna know why?! Because it is our TRUTH.
That sweet two-year-old asking me to hold him pretty much sums up the stage we’re in where it’s hard to even have staged moments alone with each other.
But my sweet little guy didn’t just capture our reality, he created a perfect example of the stark difference between what I want to say my life is like and what it’s really like… where I want everyone to think that everything is well-lit and organized and where I really have hardened chicken nuggets and dried ketchup drying on plastic plates on my kitchen counter.
And, ya know… if it’s true for me… then it’s probably true for most of the people that I envy admire as well.
Right? Their lives probably aren’t so perfect outside of the shot either?
Look, I’m not pointing fingers here… I’m just saying… we don’t just do this on social media. We do this in our relationships and friendships as well. We want to make everything look a certain way, to portray our best angles, to highlight our best spaces and hide everything that’s junky.
But just outside the shot… just outside the shot…
So here’s the thing. You might wish you had her life, her hair, her job, her husband (yikes), her family, her spirit, her drive, her ease of life… But, sister, just outside the shot is a life that probably looks a lot more like yours than you realize… with clingy kids and medical bills and insurance companies and a husband who forgot to call and tell her that really important thing until it was too late.
Her dresser is probably covered in receipts and unmatched socks and yesterday’s earrings or the stuff she pulled from her husband’s pockets.
And deep down she’s probably hoping that she’s doing a good job of showing the angles that make everything look like she’s got it figured out.
So, I believe this. I believe that if we remember she’s probably trying just as hard to look like she has it together as we’re trying to pretend that we don’t care how great she makes it look… we’ll both find a little bit of grace for how things really stinkin’ are.
After all, there’s a lot of life to love, just outside of the shot.
SO much love,
Becky
Becky
