Inside: Instagram reels and TV shows can be entertaining, but let’s not get so focused on the pseudo-reality our screens display that we miss the beauty of the world right in front of us.  ~

As Randy and I stepped into the hotel elevator after breakfast, a woman exiting noticed my sweatshirt.

“Yellowstone,” she said excitedly. “Oh, I love that show.”

When she started talking, I thought we might briefly connect over our appreciation of Yellowstone National Park—the grandeur of which I had experienced for the first time a few months earlier.

Instead, she completely missed the point of my sweatshirt. I’ve only seen a few minutes of Yellowstone the TV show. But I suspect it comes nowhere near the actual place in any category of awesomeness.

Missing What’s Real

Randy and I got a good chuckle out of this exchange as we returned to our room. Thinking about it later, though, I wonder.  How often do we miss real beauty or significance right in front of us because our minds are focused on something far less meaningful?

Like being so preoccupied with taking the perfect selfie with the Grand Canyon in the background that we forget to sit on the bench and stare down at the splendor of it full in the face. Or being so busy trying to get the best shot of Lake Michigan, or the fall colors, or our children’s laughing faces, that we fail to enjoy the actual moment as it’s happening.

C.S. Lewis takes it to a deeper level in The Weight of Glory:

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Enticed by Distractions

Maybe we haven’t fooled around with “drink and sex,” specifically. I’m guessing, though, that we’ve all been in that spot of being “far too easily pleased” with our distractions. You know what that is for you, just as I know for me.

If taking and sharing beautiful pictures brings you joy, by all means, don’t stop. I have a few blogger friends who regularly post this sort of photography. It makes me happy to see the glory they’ve captured with their phones or cameras.

Sadly, most of the photos I take of the sunrise on the running trail or the cardinals in my backyard never quite capture the beauty of the real thing.

I could get frustrated at my lack of skills or—even worse—compare my photos to someone else’s. Instead, I’m starting to realize the blessing of keeping my phone in my pocket and simply enjoying the scenery.

A Broader Application

This applies to far more than snapping pictures, by the way. Instead of endlessly scrolling through Tweets or Instagram reels, maybe we could read more full-length books. Rather than simply liking the posts of friends we haven’t seen for a long time, perhaps we could arrange to meet for coffee.

Likes are nice, don’t get me wrong. But what about the growth of a friendship? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be so easily pleased by what I see my friends posting on social media that I fail to reach out to them for actual face-to-face conversation.

I’m as inspired by touching Instagram posts as the next person.  But I don’t want to get such a fill of them that I stop stretching my mind and heart by reading longer-length material.

I hope the lady in the elevator gets to visit Yellowstone one day, if she hasn’t already been there. As for me, our short interaction was a helpful reminder to pay attention to what’s right in front of me and make an effort to focus on what’s real and true.

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Recharge Wednesday, Let’s Have Coffee and Grace & Truth.