A little known thing about being a wedding photographer – we have to eat dinner at the same time as the bride & groom.  As soon as the bridal party finishes their meal, toasts (or other formalities) begin immediately (as the rest of the guests eat their meals) so in order to both eat & shoot everything, we have to eat early & quickly.  This can be awkward when we are seated with guests at a table in the back of the room, waiting for the buffet captain to come by and dismiss our table to the line.  Recently at a wedding, this was the case so I kindly told the other ladies at our table “please don’t think we are rude – but we have to skip to the front of the line & go grab food quickly” and explained the situation.  They were completely gracious & smiled & said it was fine – but one in particular said “It’s cool, girl!  I would never even have thought anything of it if you hadn’t said anything.  I don’t sweat the small things!”

Her words have stuck with me.  And for a conversation so small & seemingly insignificant to stay with me in this way, shows me that I have something to learn here.

I’m picturing myself if the tables were turned.  I’m a guest, who knows nothing about the duties of a wedding photographer, sitting at my table waiting to eat & watch this photographer come back with a steaming plate of food while my friends & I continue to be hungry.  If I’m being honest & knowing myself, I know I’d be BITCHING under my breath.  For sure.  “What the hell!?  Did they not hear that we are supposed to wait for the guy to come dismiss our table??  How rude is that?!”  It would bother me.  Like, a lot.  That is why the words from this stranger have stuck with me.  “I don’t sweat the small things.  It’s cool, girl.”

I’m finding in order to make the more simplistic lifestyle that I’m striving towards work, I have to incorporate this attitude.  For instance, right now my boys are running their trains all over my hard wood floors.  That seriously makes me want to scream because surely they’re going to get scuffed up.  But then I have to ask myself “does this really matter?”  I want my kids to enjoy their home.  I want them to enjoy their toys.  I surely can’t expect them to drive their trains on the boring carpet all the time.  So instead of getting myself all worked up about this, I’m choosing to say “it’s cool.”

I put my money where my mouth is last week & took my kids exploring one random afternoon (when I really just wanted to lay around on my rump scrolling through Instagram).  I decided that despite the hassle it is to me to haul 4 kids out in the heat, they needed an afternoon to get out & enjoy their surroundings.  I took them to a local park that they hadn’t been to before where there are also abandoned “fort” type building & the woods to tromp around in.  They climbed in places I might not normally let them & got covered in mud.  And I said to myself, “it’s cool, girl.  Let them be”.  And I did.  And they had a blast.  It was simple, and free (both “freeing” and economically free).  On the way home my knee jerk reaction was to swing through a drive-thru and grab lunch or at least a drink for myself – but I pushed that aside & instead stopped at a local farm to buy each kid a fresh peach.  So simple.  So free.

Those little choices are the things that really make living a more simple life a reality.  Going with the flow, saying “no” to unnecessary frustrations, experiencing life outside of my own box, spending less, and enjoying more.