Kelly Verdeck Photography

On The Horizon

// June 25th, 2010 // Family Lifestyle, Photos

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.
William Makepeace Thackeray

I’ve always loved the beach. Anywhere land meets water tends to be an interesting place, but the beach is definitely the extreme example. The stretch of sand and the vast expanse of ocean stretching out.. it just makes me feel small. Insignificant. I imagine to a lot of people that sounds like it would be a bad thing. People like to feel important, so why should I enjoy feeling insignificant? I guess it’s a matter of perspective. It’s the same reason I love looking into the night sky: whatever problems I think I have really seem to fade away against such an expansive backdrop, and when confronted with the incomprehensible distances and timeframes involved. Continental drift, mountains forming, galaxies swirling, light traveling for a few thousand years to get from there to here.. it’s all so much MORE than me and the petty things I worry about. Perspective.

But of course my troubles are still real to me, and I know I’m not really insignificant. That’s because of the other elements in the photo above–those little girls. I love a good jumping photo, and in this case I really like that my Hermione is jumping into the ocean, fearless, with the endless horizon before her, and with her sister at her side. It’s literal and it’s symbolic, and I hope it’s a metaphor for the rest of her life. Jump in, chase the horizon, and do it with people you love. If that can describe your life, even in part, then you’ll be a success whether you ever catch the horizon or not.