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| Something tells me that you’ll never look at a baby photo of yourself the same way again. |
The other day my mum and I were going through some old family photos with the impossible task of album-ing everything.
I stumbled across this baby (ha! wordplay!) and couldn’t help but think how creepy it was to be staring into my own newborn eyes. It’s as if in that moment baby Alison knew that she was staring down the barrel (or lens) of a camera, to one day look grown-up Alison straight in the eye and telepathically ask her:
WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR LIFE BRO?
Not in a condescending or concerned way, but just as a reminder to take stock once in a while.
We all get so caught up dwelling on past failures and missed opportunities or become stuck in this neverending quest to better ourselves that we lose sight of the big picture. Those shit days at the office when you feel like you’re pointlessly slaving away to meet ridiculous deadlines or nights when you find yourself stalking a past love secretly hoping they were terribly unhappy to have lost you. We’re all guilty of doing it – I’ll be the first to admit it.
But sometimes we just need to stop, breathe and enjoy the moment. Put our iPhones (or Blackberrys) away and be present. Have a good long chat with mum over a cuppa; experience a band’s entire set with your eyes and ears, not through the screen of a smartphone; choose the long walk home to smell the fresh air and admire the beautiful night sky. Because if I died tomorrow that’s the kind of stuff I’d want to take with me.
Ain’t mortality a funny thing.
x Grandma AL
The Adventures of Grandma AL 