Stop chasing the money...shots!

I was on the patio with my son one afternoon when I realized he was gazing straight up at the cloudless blue sky. I wondered what he saw. When I looked at the sky from his perspective, from his literal vantage point, I saw soaring sycamore trees with the sun streaming through. I almost missed this stunning moment as I was distracted by the anxiousness of mundane obligations, such as raking leaves.

At some point, we stop seeing with kid’s eyes. In fact, sometimes we stop looking altogether and just move through life to prescribed rhythms, simply meeting the expectations of adulthood.

Might this be the reason everyone takes the same pictures – same landmarks, same sunsets, same rainbow, same selfie spots? A child approaching the Eiffel Tower or the Hollywood sign or the latest downtown mural, would NOT stand in the expected location to take the “money shot” that millions and millions of people took before them. A child would have been distracted along the way with a detail or a sound that most of us would tune out, as we determinedly elbow our way in to get our “money shot.”

My wish for you this holiday is that you stop and look, really look, from a child’s point of view. Meet the world as if you were a child – chest-to-chest, nose-to-nose, and eye-to-eye -- this is what makes all the difference.