Life Lesson #98 ~ Life’s Snapshots

“A photograph is the pause button of life.” ~Anonymous 

I’ve been reminiscing, looking back on all our photographs from the last 20 years lately. It always brings me such joy. It’s as if all those years all come together building a mosaic, a montage of memories, feelings and emotions right in front of me. I love holding old pictures in my hand, being able to remember a moment from years ago that may have slipped away from my memory. It’s almost as if you can actually reach out and touch the memory, feel the love, the joy or even the sadness of the moment as it unfolds in your hands. It’s one of the reasons I always have a camera ready. I learned early on to capture as many imprints life has to offer as possible, I guess I’ve always understood how important keeping a collection of life’s impressions close by was while also making sure celebrations on hand  were tucked away somewhere safe. Why, well because in the blink of an eye all those memories can fade and be taken away. The truth is our yesterdays and the days gone by well they’re caught somewhere between impression and reflection. These snapshots, the moments we capture on film, digitally and anything else in-between embrace those memories, tucking them safely away for us for another day and time. Photographs, they allow us to return time and time again, to experience the happiness, sadness and even the uncertainty of those minutes already passed.

Our snapshots, the pictures we gather through a lifetime read like a book, chapter by chapter don’t they? In each photograph we see pieces, parts of ourselves through each and every stage of our lives. If we’re really honest, “memories are the architecture of our identity.” Thinking about it this way really pulls things into perspective doesn’t it? Our memories paint a picture, telling a story pixel by pixel. A moment of hope, a reunion, graduation, a birth or even a death all captured in a photograph reveals emotions we may have forgotten about. Our lives, our failures, accomplishments, happiness and fears can all be connected, tapped into through a memory. Pictures, they pause life, imprinting our emotions, our feelings on a piece of paper allowing us to rediscover those parts and pieces of ourselves during a later chapter. I’m not sure we realize it in the moment but the truth is “we take pictures as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.”

Personally, when I look back, I can see just all the living we’ve actually done together. It’s been a really good life so far. I can’t complain. We’ve traveled, gone on adventures and settled into new homes together many times. We’ve made memories, shared experiences and struggled together. We’ve faced illness, death, uncertainty and triumphs side by side. And because of those things, life has rewarded us with invaluable snapshots. True, life has mostly been a roller coaster ride for the better part of our lives but oh what a ride it’s been! Yes from time to time we’ve even gone without a working lap bar. But when my mind drifts back to those chapters behind us, I feel fortunate. I see love, happiness and contentment. Smiles, laughter and yes many tears have jumped off page after page through the years but they all remind me just how close we are as a family, of how far we have come.  We’re stronger together, a family made up of diversity and difference. Nothing has ever been handed to us, that’s for sure. We’ve had to work hard for each and every victory pushing through every failure. But you know what; we’ve made it through every up and down, every step, and every pitfall.  All those infliction's, disappointments and even losses have not been able to keep us from imprinting happiness in all of our snapshots of this life. What I know is life’s a mystery, but it leaves clues within each photograph we take. This crazy life of mine is perfectly imperfect by the presence of my family. I am absolutely surrounded by a bunch of crazies that’s for sure, myself being one of them. And yes, it is my circus let’s be honest, but you know what I love ém just the way they are. Philippians 1:3-4 makes this point better than any other scripture I know can, “I thank my God for all the memories I have of you.  Every time I pray for all of you, I do it with joy.”

And it is truly joy that makes these memories, these pauses in time so precious. So yes, life lesson #98 ~ Life’s snapshots do have a way of reminding us not ony of where we’ve been, but with whom we’ve taken the adventures with. My life is truly a hodge podge of escapades but what I know is this:  I’m besieged on every side by love, silliness, and seriousness and yes laughter. I can’t escape it but I wouldn’t ever really want to. What I know, which isn’t much actually is each snapshot tells a story all its own. Each picture tells a story from Micah pretending to be Elvis, dressed up as the Pope for a class project or as a hot dog for Halloween to the boys clowning around, inspecting a turtle, Joshua goofing it up with me or even Johnny and I stealing a kiss in Epcot.  And just as the stories in each of those pictures unfold, every memory connects our hearts to one another, photograph by photograph. The truth is, “we didn’t realize we were making memories we just knew we were having fun.” And those my friend are best kinds of snapshots because they make the best memories.

~Christina