Memory Lane

Being a photographer with digital tools, you can imagine that I have files upon files to maintain for clients - arranged of course in neat and orderly (accessible) fashion... can you think of what I have to maintain for my own life?! I mean the pictures of the kids? In an attempt to organize in some other fashion besides (barely memorable) dates, I found myself the other day "thumbing" through literally thousands of pictures representing the past 3 years or so of our lives. Being on a mission, I reminded myself that I could not look at each photo or even set of photos for long, so I took quick glances to get the general idea of contents in each folder. Even at this quick pace, I was reminded how short their hair was as babies (now cut in fashionable styles), the shape of a toothless grin (which is now ready to return to toothlessness!). But even with these fond memories, I found so much more by looking through the images. I could actually hear the sound of the laughter, smell the diaper creme, the rice cereal on their breath and even remember vividly just how shrill a sound an unhappy toddler can make! All of these are endearing to me (in retrospect) and all of it absolutely, completely full of love. Love - it is all about love. Life is about love - memories are about love - photography is about love...