i am sure i am not alone in feeling reflective today-new year’s day 2012. the passage of time overwhelms me so much–but especially on this day. i spent the day organizing the boys’ memory boxes-filled with treasured i’ve saved over the years. i’d been meaning to get to those boxes to organize them and get dates written on the back of the random photos placed in there for almost a year now. today was the day.
i felt the winds of change overtaking our family. gone are the days of baby strollers, woody and buzz toys and our vast collection of ‘cars’ from the movie “cars”. it was with a heavy heart that i packed those away in my attempt to get to the memory boxes stuffed into the corner of the closets.
once my 41-year-old hands {which are strikingly similar to my mother’s hard-working hands} were in those boxes i was shocked by the emotions i felt while sorting through old photos of days in which, today, felt so so far away. in one of the boxes were the first pair of Stride Rite high top brown classic baby shoes, t-shirts that just “HAD” to be saved as they were not often parted with, maternity pictures, saved art work from school, favorite baby rattles, favorite baby books etc. but those random photos kept getting to me.
we’d ALL changed so much. for sure the boys had but so had mike and i. so much. less wrinkles, darker (and thicker/more) hair, a lot less weight and seemingly–a lot more smiles were depicted in the images. i realized that child-rearing over the past 7+ years had tired us out so much.
{here’s a collage of some of my favorite images i hadn’t seen in a long time when i was searching through old galleries.}
these are snapsnots of “US” living in and enjoying the moment. i took TONS of images of us during those early years as a family. i’ve been so busy with my photography work {which i am eternally grateful for} that i’ve missed a lot of those magical simply family moments. one of my 2012 resolutions is to capture more of my family life. after all…I AM the family historian.
{simple moments like a couple of quick snapshots of the boys on christmas eve just before bed. when hope and excitement filled the house as we headed upstairs for daddy’s annual reading of “the night before christmas”. and a quick image of the snacks set out for santa (and beautifully, yummy bokeh in the background with my 50 mm wide open to 1.4).}
digging deeper and deeper in to the boxes i saw images from so long ago {well not THAT long ago} that i could hardly remember the year to write on the back. even my husband wasn’t sure on some of them. i turned to an online backup service that i use to store our thousands and thousands of images to find out the specifics. and, well, you know where THAT led right?…i was dragged back into time clicking through image after image with tears welling up in my eyes. we’ve been so blessed with so many memories and so much more. the tears rolled down my cheeks-bittersweet. i was grateful for all of the good times and the bad but so so sad that time has passed so quickly.
hours and hours later (i am a football widow on steeler sunday’s–and now the boys are glued to the couch with their dad too so i had lots of free time) i finally finished the project. and i survived the nostalgia {barely} by smiling at this photo of US. we’ve come so far in our journey as parents. yes–with a few bumps and a lot of bruises…but we survived nonetheless. and i am proud of that.
a simple and sweet quote from my husband in a card written to me years ago:
“love is not in the falling. it’s in the staying.”
pic on the left taken in 2006 by crested butte photographer andi tippie: tippiepics.com.
pic on the right taken in november 2011 by ross bothwell of elegant images: elegant-image.com.
so here’s to US. here’s to the gift these boys are to us and here’s to making more memories in 2012. most importantly–here’s to appreciating each and every moment of togetherness be it sweet or sour.
i am booking for end of january if you want ME to capture YOUR memories for you!
shoot me a comment if you are interested in spending some time with me, my camera and my lenses!
no comments