I was cruising down I-20 recently, headed to another Noonday Collection adoption trunk show my friend Kasey was hosting in a small west Texas town about 90 miles from my west Texas town.  My mind wandered as I messed with the radio, mentally went through my “check list” in my head, and looked at my clock as I was running late, as usual.  I decided to make a few phone calls, and managed to get a hold of my good friend [who I just traveled to Uganda with], Cara on the phone.  Don’t you love those friends that you just jump right into what’s on your heart?  Hardly no small talk, but straight to the heart talk.  I love it.  She started telling me about this book she’s been reading by Jeff Goins, In Between.

Honestly, I haven’t read it yet.  But as she spoke about how it had been teaching her more and more about those “in between” moments, I had this picture in my head.  Cara was sharing with me how the book was teaching her that life isn’t about the “big moments” but really more about the little everyday moments that happen in between the big moments.  The picture in my head was getting louder.

When I was a kid, my dad loved to take “home movies” of us.  This was in the 80s, and so of coarse, before iPhones and iMovie.  It was simply raw unedited footage that he took on his hand held video recorder.  All these years later, my dad has managed to get all of his footage onto DVDs and they sit in a huge CD book organized and labeled by year.  It seems that every time my two sisters and I are home for a holiday or a weekend, we pile on my parents bed and put in a movie.  Our favorites are from when we were all under the age of 8, mind you.  My dad recorded everything: piano recitals, graduations, church choir concerts, softball games, birthday parities….the list goes on.  But do you know what our absolute favorite videos are to watch?

The everyday, in between moments.  We hardly ever want to watch the “big moments” relived on the big screen, we would much rather watch my sister Rachel wrap a beach towel around her head and claim when she grows up she wants to be a “dancer girl”.  Or when she, around the kitchen table on her 4th birthday, opened up a pair of dress up earrings and says, “the earrings I wanted, from the catalog!”.  A true fashionista in the making.  We want to watch the videos of Mary Helen, the youngest sister, tell my dad over and over that she wants to go to “San AN TONIO!” in her best hick accent.  Dance parties while mom was cooking dinner, running in the sprinklers in the front yard, riding our bikes in the driveway.  THOSE are the moments we want to watch.  The everyday.  We can hear our dad’s voice on the other end of the camera, and sometimes, he turns the video camera on himself to tell us the day, time, and year.

In in instant it gave me new perspective on life.

Life isn’t about the “big moments” and the next big event in our lives, or in our kids lives.

It’s about the everyday moments.

The moments at home, having a dance party while I cook dinner.  Getting sprayed by dad with the water hose.  Jumping on the trampoline while singing “let it go”.

THOSE are the moments I want to search for.

Because I think in 30 years, those will be the ones my sweet family remembers.

“the best moments are the ones happening RIGHT NOW” – Jeff Goins, In Between 

Wynne is a Texas girl married to her best friend,  seeking to live life in intentional  community.  She’s an  adoptive mom, a storyteller and a dreamer.  She loves Jesus and is passionate about people, Africa and her role as a Noonday Collection ambassador.  She loves to travel the world, take photos and tell stories and share them on her blog, gloriously ruined. God has gloriously ruined her life and now she’s  just living this wild adventure He’s writing. You can find her on facebook, purchase with purpose on her noonday collection site, and see glimpses of her daily life on instagram.