Photographs

JOY DARE

(I realize Ann Voskamp did this series in 2012, I'm not sure if she's done one in subsequent years, but I think it's always a great time to be joyful and thus and still pulling off the 2012 series.  Please share if you are aware that she has a new one out!) 

3 gifts on paper: 

Photographs.

Wait can that count for all 3?  The million myself and my loved ones have taken since cameras were invented?  I mean, look around my house.  There's photos dating back to since before time began.  

Pictures of my mom's parents and sister.  These were taken in the mid 50's, on their family farm.  And now the pictures hang proudly on our dining room wall.   And even though I was very young and don't remember my mom's mother well, I feel like I do because of all the pictures I have of her and the stories I've been told through them.  

I love that a photo tells a story.  It can be a great conversation starter.  Pictures make you laugh, they make you cry, they bring you peace, and some can bring out tough emotions.

As we get older and add to our memories, some fade, but I just LOVE how bringing out a box of photographs will just trigger and dislodge so many wonderful memories, and then your heart smiles. 

Mom's mother's parents, taken about a century ago.  And now this hangs proudly on my dining room wall.  Mom was named for her grandfather in the photo.  My daughter was named for my aunt, who was named after my great- grandmother in the photo.  In the south we do a lot of "naming for".


Now I'm going to go fix a boloney sandwich, because looking at all these pictures made me think about my childhood, and how good it would taste when mom or Buba would make me one.