“Don’t move! This is going to be epic…”
Those are the words that came out of his mouth just moments before “the incident”.
We had been anticipating that week for years, and at last the time had come. Anxious to celebrate our 7th anniversary at the same resort we had honeymooned at, we were giddily dipping our toes in that clear turquoise water once again. Almost as quickly as we jumped in the water, Kelly was running back to the beach, shouting over his shoulder – something about having a great idea, not to move, and be sure to keep the camera rolling.
Kelly can be a pretty funny man, so I knew this was going to be good. Soon my husband began running back towards me. I stood there, as still as one can with the waves gently rocking back and forth, eagerly awaiting the something hilarious that he had promised, and ready to catch it all on video. Kelly was getting closer and closer. 15 feet away, became 10, then 5, and all of a sudden – whack!
He had run right into me, slamming the camera into my face, and instantaneously providing me a lip so plump, women in Hollywood might have been jealous. A little confused, and still unsure on what was so funny about that, thoughts of having a fat lip for our entire trip had me on the verge of tears, making Kelly feel even worse. Thankfully, after a little TLC, my lip was back to normal in no time.
We were reminded of a few lessons that day though. That sometimes things are more funny in Kelly’s head than they play out to be. ;D And even more so about communication and the importance of understanding each other.
A few years later, and that unfortunate collision had almost completely escaped my memory. Until a few weeks ago when we were wrapping up with one last family shot at a wedding. There I was with a camera pressed up to my face, no peripheral vision, and Kelly running towards me in an attempt to get all of the kiddos looking my direction. He backed up a little too far and ran smack into me, knocking me backwards. Thankfully there was a passerby there to catch me mid-air and prop me back up on the step-ladder (special thanks goes out to him!), so the only injury to speak of this time was what had been done to my pride.
I guess twice in all the hours we’ve spent side by side isn’t so bad. That being said, the next time I’m looking through a camera and Kelly is running, we’re definitely going to know how important it is to communicate.
-m
