I have a picture of my Dad from when he was in the service.

Sitting in sunglasses on a castle wall in Germany.

He looks like a badass.

Dress uniform.

Looking at the camera.

What was he thinking in that shot?

I never asked him.

I wish I had.

In my mind he is thinking…I look like a badass.

The German background is non descript.

The castle merely a backdrop to a twenty-something GI.

A selfie of the 1950’s.

Photos.

A moment in time.

Good times. Bad times. Meh times.

But times in the life of each of us.

My kids get mad when I want to take pictures with them. 

Those pictures mean more than words.

They capture a moment.

A perfect, or maybe not so perfect moment, in a day in the life.

A life of captured moments.

I envy anyone who has lived in the iPhone generation sometimes. Sometimes I don’t.

They can capture hundreds of thousands of moments.

But sometimes I think they miss out on the true moments of life.

Really living in the moment. Not just living for the likes.

So maybe that is what life is.

Liking the life you live. Not waiting for that picture perfect moment. 

So I love that picture of my Dad. Looking like a badass. Perfectly framed. Sunglasses on. 

Living. Really living.

There aren’t endless pictures of him posing in mundane, sycophant poses.

It was real. 

A single photo in time.

Because really, it only takes one photo to capture the perfect moment.

Because endlessly posing, posturing, trying to capture the perfect moment, misses so many truly perfect moments.

So what do I think my Dad was thinking in that shot?

Beer. Girls. Cigarettes. Basketball. 

I don’t know. But what I do know?

He lived an ordinary, but blessed, life.

And no picture could ever capture that.

Because life is meant to be lived, not captured.

Get out there. Grab life. Because life will pass by regardless.

“They say we die twice. Once when the breath leaves our body, and once when the last person we know says our name.”

So those pictures we take, soon enough, mean nothing to the outside observer. 

But the moments you made taking those pictures will mean everything. So just make the moments.

Life will pass, but the way you pass it, will mean everything.