What is a snail’s pace?

Yesterday, as I was cooling down after a run, I saw a beautiful snail creeping along its way across the pavement. Snails in our complex are not unusual. If I think about it, their numbers are actually a little disturbing. We have big snail (8″!) and small baby snails (3 mm) and all sizes in between.

What made this snail stand out, however, was how beautifully it was glowing – it was a lovely amber colour with red markings. Its antennae were almost translucent. And it was perfectly symmetrical.

So, I decided to take a picture to show my kids (my daughter loves snails).

I took out my iPhone. Keeping in mind that close ups are often best taken when shot from a distance, but zoomed in – I did just that. I squatted about 2 feet away from the snail, and zoomed in.

And took one blurry snail picture after another.

Puzzled, I moved closer, reduced the zoom and took a clear picture.

And I realised something that made me stop in my tracks. The reason why the snail’s picture was blurry was because it was moving. It was creeping along at its minuscule pace – but it was moving. Just like my kids seem to constantly photograph as kinetic blurs, so was this snail! I would never have thought that a snail’s pace would make a photograph unfocused, but then again, it is all a matter of perspective, isn’t it?

The snail was making progress.

No matter how far our targets seem or how difficult, keep moving. No matter how slow the progress seems to you, keep going.

You are progressing, that is what is important.

To someone else, you are a kinetic blur.