I have always taken a ton of pictures, especially of my children, my family, and trips taken. I love capturing and documenting my kid’s childhoods, life events, special moments, and our travels and adventures. After each round of pictures I would print them all out and spend days sorting them and then putting them in chronological order into albums, complete with notes of time, date, and places. After over 30 years of doing this I had amassed dozens of albums filling a large bookcase. I have also been teased many times about taking “too many pictures” which is most likely legit lol.
Over the years as I was doing this it was always with the happy thought that we could look at them throughout the years, or even years later, and remember the moments, the feelings, the people, and all of our good times together. In reality these albums were rarely looked at and just spent all these years on the bookshelf turning yellow and collecting dust.
As I’m now in the process of updating my home I kept going back to that bookcase trying to figure out what to do about it. I knew I could never get rid of the pictures but the albums had to go. So I bought a couple of those photo storage cases that hold approximately 1600 photos each and started to break down the albums. It took me many, many hours over the course of a week to do it but oh what a week it was! This trip down memory lane was full of nostalgia, bittersweet moments, sadness for time and loved ones now gone, but also full of tender moments, smiles and laughs, and happy times-many that made me laugh out loud as I was reminded of the moment.
It was also very eye opening for me. Throughout the stress and pressure of every day life, the traumas, the hard times, we tend to forget how truly blessed we are. Sorting through the pictures reminded me of this. I was reminded of the good life I have lived overall. I was reminded of good people and I’m so very grateful that so many of them are still alive and still in my life. I’m also grateful for all the ones who have just passed through but blessed me with love, friendship, and good times while they were with me.
It was a lot of effort to make all of those albums and also to break them down. Do I regret taking all those pictures and making all that effort? Absolutely not! I absolutely love that I captured all these special moments in our lives and I intend to keep doing so. I may have gotten rid of the albums but I will keep and cherish not only the pictures but all of the memories for the rest of my life.
I will also keep the reminder that time flies by, moments pass, and people come and go. Life is a series of moments. Grab each one and make the most of it. Appreciate the time you’ve been given and the people you’ve been given to spend it with because moments end. Not a single thing lasts forever. Enjoy it before it’s gone. Value it. Savor it. Cherish it. Get out there and live, make memories, and take “too many” pictures. Live and love the best that you can and make the most out of this one fleeting life you’ve been given.
