You Can Capture a Moment in Time or the Moment. You Can't Have Both.

The woman seemed determined to destroy her child's happiness.

Her daughter was happily playing with a car machine toy at my local shopping centre. The girl called her mum to share the joy. The mum’s instant reaction was to pull out her phone to capture the moment. But as soon as the child saw the phone, her face dropped and she lost all joy as she needed to pose/look right for a picture.

I’m all for temporarily crushing a child’s joy if there is a long-term benefit for them (teaching them a lesson or punishing them for misbehaviour) but to take a picture so “mummy” can show her friends? No.

But this has become normal now. People are so busy trying to capture and share moments, they end up killing it.

Taking a photo captures a snapshot in time but kills the moment. The moment is the memory and is where the true joy is.

You have two options: either enjoy the moment or have a picture. The latter will kill it but you have a picture of a now lifeless event.

Next time you have one of these moments, just enjoy it. If your child is playing, play along with them. If you are at an amazing restaurant, take a mental note of the smell of the food. If you are eating a delicious cake, take a mental note of how the spoon cuts through it. If you are walking in a peaceful park, take a mental note of what it feels like on your feet with every step you take.

A picture might show you a time in place but will never tell the story. Your memories do that and that’s where the joy comes from.