Nest in Your Memories
Jan
22
Featured Letters | expression, memorabilia, old photos, peaks and valleys, simpler times
It’s a simple plan, but how many of us do it? We do everything else but follow through on the one voice that should carry the most weight – our own. There’s something to be said for marching to the beat of a different drum, not following the crowd.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
When you look back at old photos, vacation memorabilia, etc., what do you see? Have people passed on who once stood by your side? Have others moved on as well as yourself? When was the last time you even rummaged through an old photo album? Each album, each picture is an imprint. Pull one out today. How has the past helped to create and define the snapshot of the present, this week past or the year ahead? If we look back at old photos we readily acknowledge what happened in our lives. Can we do the same for today without a physical camera in hand?
A picture is an expression of our voice.
After we come home from vacation, day trips or work related travel, where do we travel? Whose voice follows us home? Do you swing back begging for the simpler times witnessed in old photos, memories of stolen moments from days gone by? Do you acknowledge old haunts and loves, knowing there was a plan in place, as loose as the plan may have been at the time? Do you recognize that familiar space, the one that brought your voice into being? Do you appreciate that same voice creates your present space – a picture you will undoubtedly share and look back on in fond memory?
Share what you will but never leave the voice that brings you home. Acknowledge your journey will never be complete. That is the irreverent nature we should speak to when we look at old photos. Do not color them as a more pleasant time without knowing there were just as many peaks and valleys as there are today. Stop eagerly packing those memories away. They speak to your voice of the moment - a voice of fulfillment in the making.
Do not refute your past only to harness the future.
As much as we try we cannot bury the past, it happened. All we can do is lend it a nurturing hand of acceptance. Move on knowing there will always be circumstances that pressure your day. No one, not even those in your old photos, would discourage you from moving on without acknowledging what brought you to where you are. Why should you be any different?
This year I encourage you to thumb through a few old photographs of days gone by. Look at them from the lens an artist. What have you created since then, who now paints the canvas by your side? Have you colored your days or darkened them in with the veneer of another voice? What imprint are you making with that voice?
In ten years or so, you will be nesting once again in your memories. Don’t let the paparazzi take hold of you. Engineer your day into being as you did in the past, with a little help from your friends and family.
Next article: Keeping up appearances
.
> Related Articles
