Monday, June 13, 2011

be here now

I should probably be the first to admit that I'm entirely too reflective. I like to take in every single situation and experience, like really take it in. Over the last few weeks I've learned in a variety of situations that I am a very relational person. I feed off of making other people happy and making sure they're comfortable and content. I'm not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing because I believe with all my heart that you should serve one another as if they were your own family or closest friends.

I had the amazing experience this weekend to go to Bonnaroo with one of my closest friends. If you're not familiar, Bonnaroo is pretty much my music heaven, a festival that brings in some of my favorite artists for one fantastic weekend every summer. I've wanted to go for longer than I can remember and in a crazy and spontaneous sequence of events, ended up there this weekend.
The concert I was most excited about was Ray LaMontagne. Ray captured my heart from the second I first heard one of his songs and this was my first time getting to see him live. As he finished up with one of my favorite songs I had a brief moment of clarity. What if, relationships, while ever important, aren't all God's wanting us to see and reflect on? What if it's this whole thing that I continually talk about (and even got a tattoo for) that we're really supposed to focus on? The moment. The experience. The short story that will never happen again because it's so unique to those few minutes in time. And it made me think of one of my favorite quotes from "Into the Wild":
"But you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God's place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things."

Completely on point, right? If we would only change looking at things from an analytical standpoint and take them in for the perfect, momentary experiences that they are, we would probably all be a lot more content with the way we saw our own lives.


"Don't let your soul get lonely child
It's only time, it will go by
Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you, that's where you'll find kindness

Be here now" -Ray LaMontagne