Well my newest challenge for myself is to take The Idea Room's Photo-A-Day challenge and make it my January break challenge. I may post text based on the word of the day or a picture…It will all be dependant on my mood. I tried a few other challenges (including The SITS girls January challenge), but nothing was really working out. I think I'm still on "break" mode from my week and a half off in December. Plus the crazy rush that was December really makes me want to take the time to appreciate this month. I like the idea of sitting under cozy blankets, watching movies, reading books, and spending time with my beloved husband. Do you blame me?!
Best of all: doing a challenge like this will hopefully encourage me to pull out my camera since I just bought the most expensive lens I have ever owned: a canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens.
I bought it thinking it would be wide enough to photograph landscapes. As much as we paid, I was thrilled to receive it this past Monday. Unfortunately, when I pulled it out of it's packaging, I realized it wasn't as wide as I had hoped. Justin, in his infinite wisdom, has encouraged me to keep the lens and get a Sigma or Tokina wide-angle for our trip to Europe. I really want to be able to take interior and exterior architectural shots while abroad. And the most important thing of all for me to keep in consideration: I don't want a fisheye. ICK!! :-/
But on to today's challenge…
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| Photo-A-Day Challenge January 2014 – The Idea Room |
In Between.
While I was looking for a good challenge to take on, I started listening to the Saving Mr. Banks soundtrack, which I just downloaded today. Sometimes I think soundtracks have some of the best music out there.
Or at least it's nothing like listening to (another favorite of mine, since I've never been in this situation before) Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" over and over again while waiting to talk to United Airlines customer service.
Obviously, listening to this version from the movie Fantasia 2000 is much more appealing:
(Well…when it isn't broken up into parts that is.)
Just being Disney probably makes it wonderful, right? Oh - and the color blue. Of course, it couldn't really be any other color given the song name.
But where was I?
Ahh yes! Thomas Newman!
The guy who wrote the music for Little Women, Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and Skyfall. Who doesn't like the scores he produces?
The end title (and really a number of other songs within the Saving Mr. Banks soundtrack) spoke to me. They are fun songs and beautifully written.
But despite the fact that I could only find the End Title to the soundtrack on youtube, there is a lot of beautiful music in between the opening credits and the last song. Another song I'm in love with "One Mint Julep" by Ray Charles is also found on the soundtrack.
But I guess all of this beautiful music got me thinking about how many wonderful, little, seemingly insignificant details we tend to miss out on when we are in between the beginning and the end of something. Obviously the beginning is important, because it tells us where we need to go and what our current status is…and the end is important because it's the end. What about the middle?
I watched the movie About Time this morning with Domnhall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams. It was cute, sweet and definitely a chick flick. But one of the key ideas from the movie was actually left out of the film. The director was trying (I think) to suggest that the middle of one's story (life) is just as important as the end. Rather than providing a middle for his audience, his story fell flat and was far short of my (not-so-great) expectations. The main character didn't really change much at all throughout the movie; he didn't really learn much (except how to get what he wanted) and he didn't really grow. In the end, the audience (me) felt like I was deprived of a good story. (Or any story at all, really.)
Truthfully, I was probably only watching this movie because it had Rachel McAdams in it. I should have suspected I wouldn't like it since I didn't actually like Love Actually (like everyone else on the planet did), but sometimes movies are surprising. I just thought I'd give it a chance.
And the same is true for moments…including those in between the beginning and the end.
We don't often give those moments a chance to surprise us with great music, beautiful storylines, picturesque scenes and overall happiness.
So while my post may have been a little drawn out with pop-culture references, today I encourage you to live for those once-in-a-lifetime in-between moments. Enjoy your whole day, even during those moments when you really wish you were somewhere else (or with someone else). Then when you are tired of living for the in-between moments, realize that you are one day closer to the weekend and rejoice. Because you can.
Have a fantastic Thursday! :)
