Have you ever thought about the magic of photographs? The magic, the power to capture a moment in time. Often, I enjoy the pictures taken during my life, to re-live those moments, is a very special thing. The power of a small piece of paper or an image to evoke such vivid memories. The power to start a cascade of memories: how that dress felt against my legs while twirling, how pretty I felt in the dress Mama made for my first day of school. The intoxicating giddiness of being in love on my wedding day. The sweet scent of the soft spot on top my babies head.
That is an amazing power.
Even more magical are pictures taken prior to the start of my life. How amazing it is to see my mother when she was a young beauty queen. To see pictures of my parents' life when they were first married.
The power of photographs is that they are wonderful prompts! Starting places to begin stories, to recall feelings we haven't experienced in a while.
Wow.
I love the photos of my grandparents, how I wish they were still here to use these visual prompts to tell me more about themselves. Why was this formal portrait taken? What event was it to commemorate? Where did that brooch come from? Better yet, tell me how you felt when it was taken, what else was going on in your life?
These are the thoughts that occurred to me today as I was watching my screen saver. I recently changed my screensaver to show a slideshow of the pictures I have in my 'puter. After all, that was the justification for treating myself to a laptop. I am (sporadically) saving all my photos to the Creative Memories Memory Manager software that lets me organize my photos, date, rate and attach my memories to each of them. Eventually, I can even assign them to virtual albums. Great software! I have all the photo CDs I've bought over the years, both for film camera and my digital photos loaded, but still have a zillion shoe boxes full of old photos and negatives to scan!
Most recently, my sister, A and I spent about 8 hours on New Year's Eve using both of our scanners to scan my mother's old family photos. It was a labor of love, time just flew by with lots of reminiscing.
The point I wanted to make was how much joy I had from seeing these old photos mixed ramdonly with current ones.
Yes, joy.
That would be the joy I experienced today.
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