I don’t miss anything about the darkest days of the pandemic.
I do, however, miss appreciating the beauty in everyday things.
When every day and every moment was dangerous, our worlds became small. This forced us all to spend more time at home than we were accustomed to. For me, that meant embracing routines that our pre-pandemic lives didn’t leave time for. One such routine was walking around with my camera and finding things to take photos of.
Now, I’m under no illusion that I’m even remotely proficient when it comes to the art of photography. Mainly my approach is that when I see something I like, I attempt to take a picture of it. Or at least, that was my approach in the depths of the pandemic.
These days, my camera sits mostly unused on my desk, save for the occasional dusting. These days, I feel like I need a reason to take it with me, and even when I do, I tend to walk past what I used to take great care to notice.
While things have certainly taken a turn for the better in terms of the pandemic, and we have vastly more opportunities to get back out in the world, the noise of everyday life has also returned, crowding out the mindfulness needed to slow down and take in the world we were in such a rush to return to.
I never want to relive the difficulties of the last few years, but I do want to take what I learned into whatever comes next. And perhaps, all too simplistically, the first step is to grab my camera and start appreciating everything around me again.
