The Big Picture

Imagine yourself, looking through a camera lens. You can see a flamboyant flower, with rich and vivid colors. You look closer, and you can see a slightly dull and lifeless background, but you’re perfectly happy with the image of your flower, and thereby ignore the background. Now imagine, someone starts to turn your lens and zoom out. You get worried, because you loved the image of your flower, and are uncertain if you’ll ever find the same shot again. You peer in and look now. The image is extremely clouded and distorted, with most details of the scenery ambiguous to your eyes. Your flower’s still there, but it is but a tiny speck, in your frame. You realize there’s nothing you can do, except maybe look at the flower from a different angle. A different perspective.

Think of your lives, as the big picture. The ultimate summation of all your memories, experiences, and impact, all represented by an image. When we’re born, we notice and understand little. We make do with the most minimal of resources. That can be perceived as us looking at an image through a camera which has been zoomed in to the maximum. We see nothing but maybe, the grass beside our flower, or it’s stem. As we get older we start to realize that our camera starts zooming out, showing us several more details. We may start to notice, that several things we held important in our past, are just small details in our now. Our present. Everything in our life until now has contributed to the present. 

As of now, many of us, are perfectly happy in our lives. We’re fortunate enough to receive an education, schooling, and learn, develop, and grow as intelligent humans. Much, like the image of the flower. It’s beautiful. It’s our now. There might be some things in our past, such as the slightly lifeless background, which were sorrowful. However, they’re extremely important, as they gave way to become a flower. 

Now, is also the time, wherein we start thinking of the future. For many, such as myself, it’s an ambiguous venture, with most of its details unclear, cloudy. Our past, and our decisions now, shape our future. There’s nothing one can do to change the past, except perhaps look at things from a different angle. Find opportunities in misgivings. Eventually, we all have to look at the bigger picture. The ultimate picture. The picture we aspire to create, to have. Every single decision we make would make our bigger picture clearer. Our present would eventually become a detail in the picture of our lives. 

Now think. Reflect on your life until now. From the earliest memories you recall to the present, the now. What do you notice? Personally, I notice a mixture, of several different sets of memories. Some, are contented. Some, are regretful. Some, are uncertain. But they all made my picture… and it’s ever-changing. So what do you want your picture to look like? Only you would know, and only you can make it.

-OceanGrapher