It’s been a while since I purposely set forth to engage in some interest-based learning. It’s been, well, all my life since I tried doing so with an open course. Thanks to Jim Groom, I’m giving it a go.

I’m hoping to not only have the opportunity to reflect on what it’s like to experience an open course, I’m hoping to enjoy myself as I muddle my way through more digital storytelling ideas, thoughts, and applications.

This is my first effort. Our assignment was to tell a story about something that has happened to us recently. We were encouraged to keep it under 30 seconds, but we were also given the freedom to go beyond if we felt we needed to. I felt I did. I only went over by 100%, which is better than Dean did.

This video reflects not only the first sledding experience we had with Logan a few weeks ago, it also touches on what I’ve been reflecting upon lately in life. That each one of the seconds we have counts. That sometimes we expect to find the big things in life in some big, glorious chunk of time. But when we look back, we almost always realize it’s the sum composite of the small moments we’ve had that matter. The routine moments we have rocking our child to bed. Reading the same book over and over. A single hug for our spouse. Each one of those is a small event unto itself, but someday, those small events will be gone. And I pray that I will appreciate and treasure each one.

And I pray that I will live my life in the seconds. Not waiting for the big events. But rather, treasuring, cherishing, and enjoying each small one.