I Am Grateful

My husband and I took a road trip across the country this summer. Seeing the country this way is marvelous! There was one picture I was not able to take because it was my turn to drive and it would not have been safe to do so while driving; we couldn’t stop because we were on a tight schedule to our next location. I’m still sorry I don’t have a picture to post here, but I am grateful I saw the image and have it in my memory.

We were driving somewhere near Little Rock, Arkansas going west up a hill. The highway was light colored, not dark like in California. There were three lanes going each way divided by a concrete wall with nothing on either side of the road, but sky. The clouds were a perfect mixture of light and dark fluffy pillows spread out evenly to see blue sky, while simultaneously letting in just the right amount of light to highlight the last visible part of the road at the top of the hill. The highway seemed to go up to heaven as we drove up the hill, while other cars were driving down to earth from heaven. It was magical.

I drove for three hours and thought about that image in my mind the entire time while my husband slept. It plagued me the rest of the trip and for months after the trip. It’s only now, during the holiday season, that I am able to look back at that image in my mind and be grateful I was able to see it at all. I am lucky I am healthy enough to take such a long trip and appreciate what I was able to photograph along the way. Some things are meant to be experienced rather than recorded. I can’t spend my entire life behind the camera seeing everything through a small screen rather than with my own eyes. That wouldn’t really be living, now would it? 

DebraRubyPhotography.com