pictures

 They say a picture speaks a thousand words and I can't disagree with that. A picture captures a moment in time and leaves with you a reminder of your past. Memories are so much more than just a moment captured on film. One picture may ignite feelings and other may ignite pain. Some pictures you can push away and never look at again. However, when it lands itself back in your hands, how will you feel? Would you want those moments back? Would you realize that the people in the pictures are the people you need now?   Pictures are reminders of what once was real and valid which however for most of the time, in present day is not.


That can be painful.

When they are your pictures, the ones you shot from your lens, you see everything around you not just what is being captured. This one to the left I remember driving all around town until we found the perfect spot to take a picture with the sunset, only to realize the sun was going down soon. Also I remember how badly my heels were killing be, and thinking to myself "Shoot, I have to wear these in a play?" I remember my friends and while most of us were coupled off, I remember our friendship with one another. There was an innocence that I remember, and when I look at this picture now, sometimes I wish I had that innocence back.



In this picture I remember it was our last night together as a class for Senior Sunset. While it looks like the three of us are just taking pictures in a parking lot, our whole class was watching on the left side of me. It smelt like cigarettes and swishers, because the boys in my class decided to celebrate the night before graduation. It was the last time all of us were together as kids. I remember thinking that I had to take a picture so I wouldn't forget. This picture didn't even capture what I felt that night. I have the rest in my head.        
                                                        So what if the picture that lands itself in your hands,  isn't your memory?  I remember looking through my moms old yearbooks and wishing I had been there. There was no possible way I could have been in high school in the 1970's let alone with my mother, but they always looked like they were having so much fun. The traditions were so different and by different I mean better than the ones I remembered having in high school. Cause isn't that really how it goes? If you're not apart of that moment, you automatically think that was the best moment in someones life and if you weren't there in that special moment, then you are somehow less special to that person? Train your mind to say no, no, no. My mom's high school experience couldn't have been mine and mine couldn't have been hers. I bet there are pieces of my high school experience that my mom wishes she could have had too. We are so silly wanting to be in places where we couldn't have been because most of the time there are people who want to be right where we are now. If you hadn't met someone yet, you're not living your life with them in mind. You're living in your moment and eventually all your moments would lead you to new found friendships. And in those new found friendships, you talk about your past.


The past is tricky. You can't deny it was there but you also can't live in that place. Life is made in forward motion. So what do you do with the pictures?                                             

You appreciate. You remember. You keep going.         

 

Appreciate that the past exists. Dang right, I've lived a good life! I hope the people I meet have lived a good life too. Maybe I'm not in their memories for now, but you bet I am going to be in the future. 

Life is precious. 

Be in every moment.