Keeping memories alive - what else is more important than that?
This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately, ways in which we can keep our memories alive and why it's so important to do so.
A school friend of mine is quite ill and having not see her for around 20 years (yes, showing my age there) - I have been searching for photos of her or the two of us. I've searched high and low - looking back through Facebook memories, through the gallery on my phone, my phone backups and it's prompted something within me.
How much easier it would have been to search through a physical photo album instead...
As busy, active beings - we live very full lives and there's something that will always pull on my heart strings... Taking a stroll down memory lane. Nostalgia, remembering all of the moments with my friends and family, where there was happiness and love. And heartbreak too, sadness, it's all about of our lives and what makes us who we are and fills this journey that we're on.
When I grow old and the wrinkles take up residence on my skin I want to be able to leave my kids with a legacy of photos full of memories from their childhood, their teenage years, adult hood, their children and their children’s children... I want them to have still moments captured of their me and their father, their siblings, our home, all of the firsts. First birthday, first tooth, first day of school, awards nights, graduations. All of it.
If those photos are only ever kept digital, on my phone, on our laptops, on hard drives, 'the cloud' - hiding and wasting away, it makes it harder for us to reminisce. And if something ever happened to our devices, all of those captured memories would be lost!
Print those photos so they can be passed down and kept forever. Let them fill your walls, shelves, wallets. Bring them out at family get togethers - flick back through them. Laugh at that hairstyle, those clothes, that boyfriend. Bring your hand to your heart as you remember the times that made you laugh and cry.
So I've set myself and annual goal from 2020 on - I'm going print my photos and make a year book.
What will you do to cherish your memories?