A moment in time can last forever if you let it.Last week, after losing my third friend/classmate this year, I really started thinking a lot about my life, my family and my mortality. As cliché as it may sound, things can change in an instant. And you just never know when that instant is going to be.
When I made a condolence call last week, the sister of my deceased friend lamented that they had never taken the updated family picture they had been talking about. In fact, she told me, sadly, she didn’t even have many recent pictures of her sister. She badly wished that she did. Yet, who knew they would never have a chance to take more photos?
You just never know.
As I thought through all this over the course of a few days, I realized what I needed to do. I walked into a photography studio near my house and made an appointment for a family picture. True, we had just taken one a little over a year ago. Yet, I didn’t want to ever regret not having a picture showing my girls’ long hair, missing teeth and innocent smiles. I didn’t want to have to look back one day and think, “We should have …”Now, my husband complained a bit about the whole picture idea. He has never been a sentimental guy and having his picture taken is near the top of the list of things he hates to do. Still, he cooperated — albeit a bit unhappily — with the whole thing. So, three days ago, the four of us dressed in coordinating outfits and headed for the picture studio. Quite, honestly, the whole family had a good time!
A few hours and a few dollars later, we left the studio with smiles, laughter and a bunch of beautiful pictures, several of which are already hanging in our home. I find myself staring frequently at the pictures and smiling — really smiling. Even though those photos show only one moment of one day in our life, they represent all of the love and security and sense of completion we feel as a family. I am quite certain that years down the road, when I see those pictures from this past weekend, they will help me recall so many more memories than just that one day. And I want to make sure that I do remember all of the good and wonderful parts of my life. After all, memories are really all we have in the end. Right?
I guess the bottom line is two-fold. First, never procrastinate: You never know when time might run out. And secondly, never underestimate the value of each and every second. Because sometimes, a moment in time truly can last forever.
1 comments:
Another great post, Sharon.
Another idea is to get one of those teeny tiny little cameras and carry it with you as much as possible. They have really come down in price, especially if you go to one of the discount (practically wholesale) shops, such as Tiger Direct -- who has now merged with CompUSA (along with another company I don't recall the name of), and apparently they're keeping the CompUSA name.
Anyway, I just recently purchased the Samsung SL420 (10.2 megapixel, 5x optical zoom, smart auto, perfect portrait system, beauty shot, face detection, self portrait, smile shot, blink detection, red-eye fix, smart album, dual image stabilization [optical & digital], auto contrast balance and frame guide 2.7) after a very nice salesman -- who is a photographer on the side -- listened to the kinds of things I wanted to be able to take pictures of, and he pretty much chose the perfect camera for me ... especially at just $150 + tax.
It fits easily into my purse, and also into most of my pockets, so that I can always manage to have it with me when I want to take a picture. Oh, it's very light weight, too, which is another plus. :)
I definitely prefer it to my phone camera (which actually takes really nice pictures) because it can hold a lot more photos, and I'm always forgetting to download the photos from my phone -- which often means I miss a good picture quite often because I'm out of room.
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