Preserve Those Good Times

Preserve Those Good Times

Stop. Relax. Enjoy some of the bright spots in your past. What events percolate to the surface? Who stands out like a lighthouse resurrecting joy, painting a smile on your face?

A familiar smell, sight or sound may stumble into your rat-race day. The camera-flash moment excites and then disappears, the pleasure cheated like a sip of expensive wine immediately followed by a fork full of food. Schedule-filled days, salted here and there with best of times minutes, loses its shine to more-done–today values. Rushing from event to event gives one time to note, a bright sunny day, but no time to soak in the sun’s comforting warmth. To many, there’s no time. Soaking in the treasured times is reserved for celebrations and holidays.

Thank God for photos, concrete snapshots of on-cloud-nine times. Cameras mostly catch joyful circumstances, laughing family members, fooling-around friends, exciting achievements. Instances of warm relationships and bubbling-over emotions warrant savoring. They are rewards for labors to serve or please another or achieve a goal, especially a challenging goal.  If one can’t delight in past highlights why bother making any effort?

Photos, whether stuffed in a box in a drawer or mounted and captioned in an album, do more than create warm feelings. Viewing past highlights reenergizes, especially if one is feeling discouraged, drained. Good times exist. Life is not all bad.

In my novel, Baggage burdens. the recharging value of albums is illustrated in the lives of Julie, Jill’s cousin, Josey, Jill’s grandmother, and frequently in Jill’s life. The memories stored in the album and their preparation strengthens the women. I wonder if looking back on power point presentations and Facebook or Instagram posts achieve the same results.

two album snapshots

Jill looks at her grandmother’s bulky photo album, a catalogue of flowers conveying a gardening history of her grandparents and their efforts to create a park like setting.

What a marriage they had! They planted, pruned, and weeded together. They traveled to several places in the States purchasing special roses.

As Jill flips through the album, Josey’s voice rings in her ears. Each picture blossoms into a new planting adventure. Josey loves talking about the photos and George as much as she loved working in the garden.

Jill flips back to the first page of the album. The pictorial recording begins with her grandparents’ arrival at the property.

Josey said, “We came to view this two-story house because it had three bedrooms. We wanted enough room for our children and grandchildren when they’d come to visit. Seeing a hedge of yellow roses, Golden Wings, bordering the long driveway to the house hooked us!” Josey exclaimed. “We had to explore the rest of the yard. Before we entered the house, George knew he wanted to buy the place.”

Jill opens one album. Daniel’s preschool years flood back as she flips through the pages. She sees shock stamped on her face. Daniel sprayed her with water. Another time, Joseph’s camera eye caught Jill wiping Daniel’s chocolate-smeared face.

Jill smiles. Her eyes dart to a paint-stained white T-shirt, Joseph’s special shirt.

Daniel needed a protective shirt for finger painting class at church. Jill hadn’t thought of asking Joseph if she could take his shirt. Later she learned the shirt was a gift from one of the vendors at the market. Joseph said nothing, but she had seen his disappointment.

Another picture shows Daniel’s head poking out of the side of some tall raspberry bushes. He had asked if he could help. Later Joseph caught Daniel’s red-stained mouth, proof Daniel was sampling instead of picking. Joseph’s caption, In the basket, not your mouth, always drew a quick defense from Daniel and laughter from Joseph.

Jill opens the second album, a new chapter in Daniel’s life. Her smile disappears after turning a few pages. In this album, she’s the photographer. She’s documenting an ever-growing closer relationship between Joseph and Daniel. Pictures feature Daniel sitting on Joseph’s knees steering the lawn tractor. The photo of Daniel sitting on top of a pile of pruned lilac branches to weigh them down as Joseph drove the tractor supports the caption, Dad’s helper. The following picture shows father and son working together in the garden. Joseph scribed the caption, My helper. Jill recalls Daniel beaming when he read it. The absence of pictures with her and Daniel causes Jill to fear that she is losing touch with her son.

       haiku capsule:

pages of mounted photos

unforgettable captions

albums––banks of joy

Next blog:

Some Place Special