I hope you had a great Turkey day full of stuffing and family, and survived Black Friday, Small Biz Saturday, Cyber Monday and GIving Tuesday (I can’t help but wonder what happens on Sunday…it seems to be left out of this frenzy thankfully).
I had a lovely weekend with family, hiking, and lots of food, which came on the heels of a very relaxing vacation.
I managed to stay unplugged for almost ten days and when I came home a number of people asked me why I hadn’t posted any photos. To be honest it was a challenge to stay unplugged at first, but also very refreshing not to be online and to just get quiet and chill.
Here are a couple of photos I snapped during the week. Sun, sand, starfish, surf…pretty perfect, right?
I could have posted quite a few lovely Instagram moments.
But here’s what you don’t see:
- The meltdown I had when I thought I had lost my wallet (thankfully found it, though after I canceled the credit and debit cards)
- Clouds at the end of every day that dashed any hope of an Aruba sunset (one of my favorite moments to look forward to)
- Multiple bad hair days (in this climate I don’t even get five minutes of good hair)
- The hangover over I had after a wine tasting dinner (considering I never really drank much at all in college, I don’t have much experience with hangovers….this wine tasting was a bit over my limit)
Don’t get me wrong, it was a lovely time, and as with all things, I choose to focus on the positives. But it’s so easy to compare our lives with someone who has a life of Instagrammed moments like this one….
Yes, that happened too, but our online self is only a glimmer of what is real. We put our best foot forward (well, most folks do), and slap a filter on to create an even more dreamy and appealing existence (no filters used on any of these btw :)).
Raise your hand if you’ve ever retaken a selfie because you didn’t like how it came out. For me, my eyes are usually closed. This one was after three tries I think.
Comparing yourself and making assumptions based on someone’s social media posts is just a waste of energy and time.
Life is messy and unfiltered and full of bad hair days.
And that’s ok, because it is also beautiful.