Sunday, April 14, 2013

To keep, or not to keep?

I just encountered a bit of a dilemma.  Just a couple of days ago, I unpacked one of the last boxes from the most recent move.  I had been stubbing my toe on it in my closet for too long.  Among the contents of the box were several notebooks of various size and color.  These are my diaries or journals from when I was younger.  I think I started journaling when I was 10 or so, and it lasted until later high school.  My dilemma is what do I do with these notebooks now?  They are filled with all sorts of personal thoughts and feelings and random happenings in my not too event filled adolescence.  I don't know that I would like anyone else reading them, at least not while I'm still alive.

My mother has a journal from her mother around age 16.  I know this is very special to my mom, because her mother died when she was a baby.  It provided a look into her life that my mother never would have had otherwise.

So, to keep, or not to keep?  That is the proverbial question.

Finding Beauty and Meaning in the Ordinary

I had one of those moments tonight where I felt overwhelmingly blessed, special, and insanely happy.  It's that feeling that drowns all doubts, fears, and worries, and lifts your spirits like nothing else.  I am so very blessed in this life.  I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and wonder how I ever came to deserve the beautiful people and things I have surrounding me.

I was watching a movie tonight about a couple, and the girl was an artist.  She had photographs of her husband in very ordinary situations.  Just snapshots of them doing their normal routine at home.  I consider photography a hobby, but I have recently said to myself, I don't go anywhere or do anything where I can take pictures.  So I put those two thoughts together.  Why not take pictures of how my life looks now?  It's these kinds of memories that make the biggest impression with me.  Time spent laughing, goofing off, doing dishes together in the kitchen, taking the dog for a walk, getting ready for bed- all things that seem ordinary, but things that when put together, are the substance of life.  Sure, weddings, graduations, family gatherings are all important and memorable, but why save those photographs for those times only?

So I have given myself a challenge.  I want to capture beauty and meaning in the ordinary.  I don't know how much of an artist I am, but I feel like I will learn to appreciate the little things more if I do this.  So here goes.