We all grow at different rates. While one person can arrive at a conclusion at twenty, it may take another until they’re forty. Our minds, over time, become an elaborate and unique camera that consistently takes snapshots along the road of life. These snapshots can easily become objects of great value, an individual perspective on any given subject or idea that we may arrive at. Snapshots are real, but how society reflects on them and uses them is truly another matter.
How many times have we heard somebody say that they could not have been able to handle or arrive at a certain conclusion earlier in life and that it took them maturity to grasp what it was they had discovered and were able to use? Yet, still our society seems to be fixated on the premise that “the faster you get there, the better you are.” One person may learn to ride a bike at five….while another at fifteen. Even though both are doing the same activity, their experiences and comprehension can greatly differ. The same snapshot taken at different periods of time can give a different perspective. How many inventors have stood on the shoulders of the giants who have come before, and taken their previous research to the next level? A bird may fly through the air, but for a man to accomplish that task it took a different mindset. So today man can fly like a bird….almost.

Snapshots of thought are very much like snapshots taken by people….images frozen in time that capture a memory. An author may write a great novel in their twenties, yet how many times do we hear that same person in their sixties or seventies say, “I don’t know how I did it. It’s almost as if someone else wrote it.” Strangely, society seems to think that it can lump us all into boxes that can be broken down into age, race, and religion, as if that is all we are. The mistake that is made is that we all grow at different rates. What’s missed is that we are really an accumulation of our experiences…all different, all quite unique. Although many would like us to believe that we are nothing more than just one more drop in a sea of humanity, it is quite the opposite…we are all rare and special droplets that are inter-connected with the Universal Divine. Each life is as sacred as the next. When one life is lost, it can never truly be replaced on earth. It all reminds me of a television show I saw last summer called “The Prisoner.” The line that was repeated over and over throughout the series was, “I am not a number, I am a man.”

No matter how many people may visit the Holy Land, each one comes back with a different story. Snapshots of a land that has been visited time and time again, yet with each one having a different texture and angle. This camera work goes on over and over again throughout our lives….perhaps because one day when we pass we are hooked up to the ultimate projection screen, where all can see who we are and what we went through.

May your life contain many beautiful pictures,

love,
Jennifer Avalon
© 2005 Jennifer Avalon