There aren't many priceless heirlooms round here. No diamonds tucked away in little velvet boxes, not much in the way of family silver and no fancy china or original artwork. The most precious of my possessions are my photographs. Most of them were taken in the past ten years, from the date I first had a digital camera. Before than, there are very few.
From this last decade though I have lots. Photos of all the big occasions. The firsts, the bittersweet lasts and all of the events in between. But the pictures that I love the most, the ones I come back to again and again, are the images of everyday moments. They are things that might slip away otherwise. Favourite books, invented games, little habits that stick for a year or two and then fall by the wayside. Recipes we love for a while, drawings that I want to keep and those moments of happy interaction between brothers that are oh so brief but oh so sweet.
I make it a habit to print off pictures regularly and put them in albums along with a little journalling. The narrative reminds me of the details I want to remember - a conversation shared, a funny story, sometimes a little something from the news to put our lives in a bigger context.
They are albums I'd hate to lose. I hope they will survive me and be valued and pored over in the future. I hope the boys will look at the images from their childhood and realise how much they were and always will be loved and how much fun we tried to give them. Maybe one day their children will look at them too and learn a little about what their parents' lives were like.
I sometimes use pre-printed cards to write on or I make my own from odd bits of patterned paper or old Ordnance Survey maps. I have a special pen that I can even write directly on the photos if the fancy takes me.
Little by little, week by week I've built up a pile of albums that tell our stories over the years. Sometimes we all sit round together and look at the pictures, and when I see the children laughing and remembering I'm so glad I took the time to put them together. Just a few minutes every week have given us something very precious, captured memories and the stories of our lives.
If you'd like to read more Precious Things posts, pop along to the following contributors:
Sarah at Mitenska
Leanne at Today's Stuff
Bea at The Linen Cloud
N at Creative Academia
