Today I had a realization - an "A-ha" moment, if you will. As I was catching up on Facebook activity, I saw that my friend Holly from Ohio added a bunch of pictures to her profile (she's new to Facebook). Some of them were of the girls in our small group having fun 'at the lake' (Beth's lake place near the Indiana border). It was great to see those pictures and remember the fun and friendships I had there.
At the same time, seeing these pictures made me sad for a couple reasons.....the first one is the obvious - I miss these friends a LOT and it's hard to be away from them, especially since big changes have happened to a couple of them since I left. But the second reason that the pictures make me kind of sad is that I have VERY FEW pictures from the 4 years that I spent in Ohio. After my marriage ended in late 2004, I just stopped taking pictures (partly on purpose, partly unconsciously). It was a crappy time in my life, so why would I want to 'relive it' in pictures for all time in some sort of photo album. However, I made some fantastic friends during that time and we did some really fun things as well, but I was too busy protesting the camera to capture those fun moments forever. 
I am so glad that we went whitewater rafting as a group in West Virginia a couple summers ago - what a fabulous bonding weekend! I had so much fun (and not just because I was the only one who got lots of sleep in our tent when our tent-neighbors were loud and kept the rest of the girls awake all night long) and I will never forget that trip. I am very thankful that I coughed up the money to buy the DVD and the CD of pictures that they offer after the trip down the river was over (they have a photographer riding down the river in a kayak with the group of rafting boats, taking 'action' shots and then they make a DVD of it set to music, as well as CD's of the pictures.....I got both!!). 
But when I look through photo albums, there is a huge gap in there where history seems to have stopped for a few years. I know my Mom lost all desire to take pictures after my Dad died too - it's probably just the brain's way of protecting our fragile hearts. I see that gap of 'history documentation' as very unfortunate, but I know I won't forget my Ohio experiences & friends, but it would be nice to have the photos as well!
2 comments:
This is so true. There are gaps in my life where I don't have many pictures and those seem to be consistent with some times when I didn't seem to be having all that much fun.
I haven't taken pictures for a very long time...
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