Pictures

    I love that pictures tell stories and hold memories. I remember when my mom told me we were going to be moving off our family farm when I was thirteen. I got my camera with my 24 picture roll of film and walked all down our road. It was a beautiful country road with endless fields on one side and sporatic fields and forest on the other. On one side a creek ran the length of the road and on the other was wild grass, Queen Anne's Lace, snakes and ant hills and lone trees. It was a road that invited imagination and quiet and I loved it. I took all the pictures I could of certain neighbor's houses, road signs, the creek, fields, I was trying to desperately to capture everything that I knew would slowly slip out of my memory and fade away. I snapped the mail boxes, the little garden, the apple trees out my bedroom window, the five tall trees I was brave enough to climb, the bridge and horses. It went on and on and I used a lot of film. These pictures helped me cope when we moved back to town, away from the Ocean and the fields and the trees and my room with a view was replaced by a basement room with no view and a life that was polar opposite to the life I had previously known. I grew up seeing my mom take pictures. She had album after album for each of her five children. She captured all the important moments for us. I have treasured that. My husband has probably about five pictures of his entire childhood and I have albums stacked in my closet. The work my mom put into writing on the backs of each picture and protecting the albums through the moves and years. Tonight I was looking through pictures and was allowing them to take me back in time. To sweet moments that seem so long ago now, but aren't. If I did not have the pictures I would not remember them. There is something important about documenting history for yourself and for those you love. When I was thirteen I was fortunate enough to meet a girl who would become my official 'important life moments' documenter. She has been there for each important moment and has so beautifully captured them. It has changed my life ~ adding so much beauty, expression, creativity. I will be ever grateful for her role in my life. Here is the  little part of a story of one of my children.

                          And here is a picture of her parents ~ back when we were farm folk.

Pictures speak volumes ~ they tell stories  ~ and they are wonderful to have. I am so grateful for these and the story they tell of my little one's life. She will treasure them forever!