This last year has brought on a new set of challenges and we as a collective people have found a renewed sense of appreciation for our friends and family. The extended separation from our loved ones has made our hearts long for that connection to each other. Where our busyness has taken a backseat and opened our eyes to the importance of each other. The heartbreaking truth of people not being able to say goodbye to loved ones dying or celebrating in the joy of the birth of a new baby, our children being separated from their friends and teachers. And us parents watching the heartbreaking scene unfold and not having the power to change it.
What we did get out of this pandemic is that home is important, being safe and happy is a luxury and our loved ones are more important than our busy lives were showing them. This brings me to my title Of "What's Old is New Again".
Cultivating New Memories With the old way of viewing images
Do you remember as a kid looking at photographs with your parents? I do. I remember sitting down with my mom and having her pull out old images of her as a little girl and pointing at my Aunt (who looked exactly like my cousin). She would show me images of My mom and Dad's wedding and she would talk about her wedding dress and how my granddad didn't approve of my dad.
She would take out pictures of me crying on Santa's lap. Images of my sister with the hero who saved her life after a devastating car accident. She would show me exquisite black and white images of my grandparents and told me the most amazing love story between them. (I always thought it should be a book).
Why did we stop doing this? Instead, we put them up on social media to get a quick hit of pleasure for comments and likes. And then in moments, the social feed moves on to someone else or something else. The connection lost and forgotten.
Maybe we need to sit down with not only our kids but our parents as well, and go through images of our lives together and give them love the way they showed love to us.
Creating Connection through hand written letters
Currently, we have 100's if not 1000's of emails that come through every day. Some we don't even open. Why is that? Because there is no personal connection it's just folderol.
I'm optimistic that as we move forward that we will see that we need to be sitting down with our kids and showing them printed photographs of the legacy that makes up who they are giving them a tangible connection to the past.
That instead of sending a bunch of emails that we will sit down and write a handwritten letter and telling each other how much we mean to each other. (Not just for holidays).
My hope is that Children will look to the walls of their home and see the love showcased there in the form of photographs, showcasing themselves and family members.
That when this is all over our kids will remember how they were cherished. That our parents felt the love and appreciation we have for them through a handwritten note.
That life gets a little sweeter and we learn how to embrace traditions of the past to show each other how much we are loved how much we are treasured how much we have been missed.
I'm curious what you are doing with your treasured images to show the love you have. let me know in the comments!
Now If most of your images are on a USB drive click here to learn more about how you should be taking care of those.
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