Preserving Memories

August 06, 2008

I am drinking my morning coffee from a cup I've had a long time. It is a Hallmark cup given to me by my best friend sometime back in the 1990's, I don't recall the exact year. Probably it is recorded in a journal somewhere. On the side of the cup, it says, "Friends are the marshmallows in the hot chocolate of life."

Soothing, somehow, to have this thing that I've had for so long. It reminds me how quickly life passes, day after day, turning to month after month, then year after year, then decades. Sobering that as much as I write in journals and letters, and now, on this blog, so many moments slip by unrecorded.

That is one of the reasons I scrapbook. Preserving memories is important to me. I'm a sentimental girl. I love to remember occasions, even small ones. Being a scrapbooker has helped me with that, of course, but it has also helped me pay attention to what's going on in the now. Being a writer, I always have noticed details, but scrapbooking distills that practice even more.

Lately, though, I haven't felt much like scrapbooking. I sat down a week ago yesterday to get something done, and spent far too much time looking for photos, getting frustrated because they are in a constant state of half-organization, and I feel buried in pictures. Daniel, who was working at home that day and wanted to help, came into our guest room, which serves as my "studio," and asked, ever-so-innocently, "Where are your pictures?"

"Where AREN'T they?!" I replied in exasperation. We both laughed, and then we went out to lunch.

But I kept thinking about how I had this gift of time, and it was squandered on frustrating disorganization. I decided to do something about it, especially after a weekend that generated a good hundred or more new photos to preserve. I bought Stacy Julian's book, Photo Freedom at the Scrapbook Zone, my favorite store, hoping that at the very least, I'd be inspired to get some organization done.

My process of scrapbooking is much different than Ms. Julian suggests, but I'm open to new ways of doing things, especially if it will eliminate some of the clutter, both mental and real, that effectively nips my creativity in the bud.

There's a special kind of joy, picking up a project I've created, pictures paired with my written account of accompanying memories. Remembering the past, seeing connections. Capturing life a little bit as it flits by.