Last week my mom mentioned Thanksgiving being this week. I told her 'I believe it is the week after'...until I looked at the calendar. I was in a state of shock that it had somehow crept up so quickly upon me. 'This time of year is suppose to be slow' I thought...a time for reflection...isn't it? Maybe it is for some. I thought it was for me as well, until seeing the month end date. It crept up upon me like a fox on a hen...silently and slowly, yet once I realized the date it felt so sudden. I feel it should still be the beginning of the month.
Christmas day is exactly one month away...that's interesting too, considering I feel it should really be just the beginning of fall.
Either way, as I sit here while the sky still remains black...the sun slowly on it's way, I find myself lost for a few moments at photos from this past summer. Guess that was one of my little moments of reflection.... looking at photos...mostly photos of my boys. I see their little muddied feet, cool grass under their folded legs and bugs in jars beside them. I see them with hiking backpacks on and fishing poles in their little hands. I see images of the beautiful flowers I've taken and images of the magic upon their little faces as a butterfly rests upon the palms of their busy hands. I see them stooping beside yet another pool of water, looking for any form of life swimming about.
Basically, images of where the time went.
Photography has always been my passion, but the images I am talking about are not the images I have taken that I sell at my art shows. These are just simple everyday photos I've captured of my boys, or the beautiful breakfast I made for my mom on Easter Sunday and Mother's day. Images of the before and after of different projects in our home, or the times my boys shot their bows at my dad's. Images of the craft projects my older boy makes or the toys left laying around in the background at days end...evidence of a wonderful day lost in play.
Basically, images of where the time went.
Images of our trips... Our trip way back in the spring to the Tulip Festival in Michigan or to the caves we hiked through in Iowa, to images of the silent, desolate, vast lands of the Faroe Islands. Images of my boys trekking upon such beautiful land. I look back at the images of the quaint county life in the Amish town we visited...only after passing up a few images of my boys swimming in my sisters swimming pool. A sister of mine who is dearly close to me but deeply ill. Images of her and my boys that I know I will treasure more then any 'thing' I've ever owned.
Basically, images of where the time went.
To everyone, these images will be different. They may be of close friends and the silly times you've shared, or a million photos of your pup or kitty. You may have images of a massive home remodel or a hundred of your brand new car. You might have images of a new love in your life or images of one past. You might have images from your graduation, wedding, or a love who has past away, as some of the most treasured photos you'll ever hold. You might have images of your most recent success, images of a business you are staring or continue to hold, or simply images of crayon on the walls and play-doh stuck in places around the house you never even knew existed. You might have both.
All of these images are as unique as each of us.
All of the images we each hold will basically remind us...this is where the time went.
As I look back, until this time now, I clearly realize 'this is how it's already the end of November'. I've crammed in so much. So many good memories. Memories, that after a quick peek at a photo, seem to come alive again as if I can almost touch and smell that moment again. Remembering the setting of the day, the sweet air or blistering cold. Remembering the soft skin of my boys and smell of their hair. Remembering the smell of the flowers, the lake, the warm cinnamon after baking. Remembering the laughter of my boys or the cries of my sister. Bringing me to remember the moments I've cried with her. It's these images that bring me back.
Basically, images of where the time went.
Take those photos, no matter how silly. For one day, perhaps at the end of the week, the end of the month, the end of the year or perhaps in two or ten years from now, you'll look back and remember...'oh yes, that's where the time went'.
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