Friday, Jason and I celebrated 19 years of being together. We had our first kiss on March 18, 1992 as I was leaving to head home from hanging out with him. It was the sweetest and most gentle kiss I had ever received (not that I had kissed too many people at 16). I saw stars immediately and my body felt like I had been struck by lighting. I was in love.
It is crazy to think back and think I have been loving the same man for so many years. That first kiss turned my world upside down and here we are in 2011 still going strong.
We celebrated by having a tasty dinner at Trapeze (where they have the best sweet potato fries in town and I am sucker for good fries - especially good sweet potato fries), then we came home and enjoyed the rest of the evening bathed in the light of that amazing full moon and firelight.
One of my favorite things about living in Georgia is the acceptance of backyard fires. We have a lovely little fire pit in our backyard and during spring, summer, and fall we light it frequently.
While we were sitting by the fire we were talking about life and nature and all things we usually talk about and I ran inside to grab my camera to mark the occasion.
It occurred to me as I was snapping shots of our gorgeous fire that I not only write, but I also take A LOT of pictures. I've been trying to get them off the computer without losing all the notes I attach to them. It's been a good bit of work, but the pictures on our computer go back to 2002 when I got my first digital camera.
I have always taken a lot of pictures and I have never really studied photography with all the ins and outs and all the technical stuff. I don't take too many posed photos either. I take photos that will help me remember the moment. Photos that capture how I was feeling when I took them.
I have had lots of different camera's and I have worn many of them out, but I still always have a camera. And I almost always have one with me. (Thus the reason I downsized to a smaller camera last year.)
When phones started having cameras on them I thought I had died and gone to heaven and now I even have a phone that does fancy tricks with the camera it has - though I haven't figured them all out yet - nor have I figured out everything my newest camera does. (Now I have to get the kids to show me the tricks).
I realized I really keep up with my life story through the lens of a camera. EVERYTHING we do just about there are photos of. Almost every big or soft moment of our lives are stored on my computer and seen through my eyes.
My kids would tell you how obnoxious I am about it, but their lives are well documented and I don't have to try to remember every single important moment, because so many of them are important.
I also realized that even when the mood isn't in me to write I am still keeping up with my life in my own way. I journal through my photos. They don't have to be printed to serve their purpose. In fact, I seldom print my photos. They are all organized by the date I took them and where I took them. Then under each photo I will often make a little caption about what I want to remember. (For those interested, I use picasa and I love it for the way it is organized and it is a free download from google and you can link it to picnik if you use that for editing.)
I keep up with every step of my quilting process through photos rather than notes in a notebook and it works well for me.
I remember most everything when I look back over the years at the plethora of things we have done together and the many projects we have accomplished. I am grateful to have the moments captured in photos. And the greatest gift to me now is the kids are following suit. They are avid picture takers and they love to view their world through the lens. I'm helping them learn to organize their photos the same as I do to help them hold onto their memories too.
I don't want my life to pass me by. I want to savor every precious moment and sometimes writing just doesn't do it for me, but following my life through pictures does and I am so grateful to recognize what an impact taking pictures has. Writing is important, but the pictures are sometimes worth a thousand words.
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