Recently I had an experience which forced me to concentrate on collecting memories instead of things. And by things, I specifically mean collecting images. Since my background is in photography and have owned a thriving photography business, and currently highly active on creating a very beautiful curated feed on Instagram this was a hard lesson to swallow.

I was recently on a weekend trip to Paris with my best friend (hello to crossing something off the bucket list!) and within hours of arriving my entire purse with phone, wallet, and camera was stolen. I am well traveled and knew the area we were in was sketchy and thought I was doing a really good job keeping everything close and near. But sadly, one moment I had my possessions and the next moment they were gone.

I felt naked and vulnerable, and very threatened.

But I persevered and tried to see any silver lining there might be. Thankfully I found a few!

The biggest one was:

COLLECT MEMORIES
instead of being focused on collecting things or images.

As a photographer I felt like my left arm had been ripped from me, I kept on wanting to reach for my camera or my phone to capture a moment or a scene then remembered neither were there. So instead, I stood in the moment and put to memory all the sights, sounds, tastes, and how it felt to be in that moment. Sometimes I would purposefully blink my eyes as if it was a camera shutter hoping to capture everything as it was, something that a photograph never could.

I lingered longer than I usually do and soaked up more than I have before, because I wasn’t distracted by making sure I got the perfect angle, the light fell exactly where it should be, or that everything was laid out perfectly that it would attract more likes on social media.

I had to let go of the items that brought me joy and realize that things are exactly that, things. The brown handbag in the image above and the silk scarf are gone, I will never see them again. They held memories and left me feeling delighted in my core desired feelings, but they weren’t everything. They were just things, things that I won’t carry with me for the rest of my life, but memories I will.

Memories are the stories we tell when we’re gathered around a bottle of wine with our girlfriends and you share delicious secrets. Memories are when you lay your head against your love and whisper dreams and your heart’s desire in the dead of the night. Memories are when you curl your babe into your lap and smell their sweet scent and remember that they once smelt like melted butter with honey.

Memories are the stories you will tell for years to come when trends change, handbags have lost their shape, cameras are out of date, and photographs have faded or scrolled into years past on your social media profile.

Share: What lesson are you learning lately, and have you had a hard knock so that you finally listened to what the universe/God was telling you?

The challenge of coordinating my desires with those with my own family, are always there. It’s a struggle, a fine balance, a juggle of balls up in the air and seeing if I can catch them all. I set myself a goal to write, at least twice a week and somehow even that small goal was set aside for other demands, not all of them someone else’s, but my writing was put aside anyway. And it wounds me each and every time that I’m not able to dedicate as much time as I want to what I want and love to do.

But the gift it has given me, the struggle and challenges of juggling my desires with everyone else’s?

Perspective and clarity.
Grace and freedom.

Nothing I do is without my permission. So whether that is saying I’m not going to write while my children nap but instead meal plan or read a book or chat with a friend, I do it with a full conscious thought. I give myself permission to do what needs to be done AND putting aside the guilt that comes from not doing what I want to be doing.

It’s the guilt that can kill the joy in doing what needs to be done. The negative thoughts that sweep in saying “there you go again, pushing aside what you said you were going to do” or “you never get to do what you want” or “if you were more passionate, you’d focus”.

Yes, those are all lies I’ve once said and believed of myself. But I no longer let those words have a hold over me.

I made a commitment to live my life with grace and beauty. Not perfection and overwhelm.

This isn’t a commitment I have made lightly, every morning I have to recommit myself to this way of living. It’s like a marriage. saying “I do” when I face an unexpected challenge, or my children refuse to cooperate with my plans, or I don’t have another ounce of energy at the end of the day to write I remind myself that I am committed to grace and beauty.

My day will never look the same from one to the next, but I do know that each day is filled with grace and beauty. Because life is too short to live otherwise.

Have you committed to live a particular way? And if yes, what is it? If no, is there something stopping you? Please share the way you live below as I would love to hear how others around the world are choosing to live life.

One of the things I hear over and over again is “I don’t have time”, I even heard myself say it this morning. I honestly felt like I didn’t have time for anything I wanted to do. Are you sitting there thinking, “Buuuuuuuut, I really really REALLY don’t have any time. I’ll cut you some slack, perhaps you have a newborn baby, or you’ve started a new job, or moved cities, or find yourself in the middle of a home renovation that is taking 10 weeks longer than they estimated. We all have reasons why things aren’t getting done. I can list 10 right now as to why I don’t have time to write or edit or play with my children or make dinner.

But the honest answer is, we don’t have time for anything we don’t make a priority for.

Did you roll your eyes at that? It’s okay, I know you’ve heard this before and you’ve tried every trick in the book. I know, I’ve been there too.

Sometimes it can feel like time is our worst enemy: it goes too fast when we’re having fun, goes too slow when we’re doing something we don’t want to do, and slips through our fingers that we suddenly don’t know where the day went.

So I want to give you one simple trick that allows you to have all the time you need for anything you want.

Change the way you talk about the time you do have.

Instead of saying “I don’t have time for…” you’ll rephrase it to:

“I haven’t made time for…”.

Simple and easy, and you’ll feel more in control of your time and your todo list. Magic!

When you say “I haven’t made time for…” you’ll also begin to notice little things that you want to make time for, things that can be put aside, or things that are a must do right now.