Something hopeful

 

I became frustrated as I attempted to catch the pink light that was reflecting off this snowy mountain. The moment seemed so beautiful, raw, and meaningful. My iPhone camera, as per usual, did not seem to be doing the scene any sort of justice. I played around with the angle, the light settings, but nothing I seemed to do could pick up exactly what I was seeing. You can't tell just how glowy the mountain looked on this wintry evening and you can't see the individual snow covered trees. But looking at this picture reminds me of what was happening in the sky and on the mountain in this actual moment. I know that the mountain was actually a soft, cotton candy type of pink even though it turned out rather orange in the picture. I know that the light illuminated the trees in a way that only happens once or twice a year if we are lucky. The experience of taking this photo was a reminder to me that we can only capture and convey our life experiences through broken, imperfect, incomplete fragments. The inability to express what we see and feel can make our experiences invalid or unimportant. But there is still a lot of beauty in these little fragments of life that we share with people. Just because this picture does not purely convey what I was seeing and feeling in this moment does not mean that the moment did not happen. This soft, reflective sunset was a complete, whole, stunning experience that was just for me. And that feels pretty significant and hopeful to me.