Why it’s important to take photos this Mother’s Day.

Wednesday, April 10th, 2019

Mother. Mom. Mama…
Transformed, literally for a lot of you over a 9 month period, or perhaps it was over a phone call. Like my mom. “Would you like to come pick up your baby girl?” A voice on the other end asked. It could have been that moment, the long car ride over, or the moment they placed me in her arms, or when they signed that paper, it happened. A transformation overtook her. Or maybe its something thats been written on your heart for many years. A life long transformation leading up to that moment.

Mom, step-mom, nana, grandma, Karen…
No matter what they call you…you have that mother’s heart. You hold little hands, braid or brush hair, kiss their bruises, stand them up when they fall, and spend energy each day helping them grow big and strong. And that’s the thing. They keep growing.

If I had a penny for every time I’ve told my own children to stop growing so fast, to slow down, to be still my heart, because the more it beats the more time moves on and then the moment has passed and keeps passing, and memories get stacked on each other like the leaves that fall from trees each fall. These children will have grown and gone away before I know it, and I’ll be standing here, reaching for them to come back.

Photos are like the ultimate time machine. I see myself, many many years in the future, opening our albums not with sadness that those times are gone, but with extreme joy that our lives were filled with so much beauty and happy memories. I suddenly remember not only what you looked like at 5 years old but how you fit in my arms just so and how happy I smiled when I felt you holding on so tight when I twirled you in the sunlight. I run my wrinkled hands over the shadows of your smile, and suddenly I’m smiling. So big, tears run out, and I call you on the phone. We haven’t talked for days, and we have a wonderful conversation.

Like…that’s what might happen if you take photos with me. 🙂 20-30 years down the road.

They say photos are an investment. They are. They truly are. So if there is one gift this mother’s day that keeps on giving, it’s a photo. I won’t deny a piece of jewelry or a genealogy test would be pretty cool too, but a photo…will bring joy…a very long time. Radiating from the frame you place it in, every day on that shelf or the hall you walk by each day until it gets passed down to a child some 80 years in the future and then it continues to radiate all the love, all the life, that it held that very instant I clicked my shutter. And it never fades. Unless you leave it in direct sunlight 24 hours a day for 80 years. Then it might fade a little. That’s why you get the digital file though….

Ok, joking aside. I want to help give you that joy. I hope I see you this spring.

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