Photos and Lessons

I've mentioned before that some days I miss me. You know, I try to not look back, to live in the moment, to move forward in peace. But Christmas makes me look back. I've been looking at photos of years gone by. This past fall my goal was to take all the pictures out of the photos albums, some 22 albums, digitize them, give them to the kids, then file those pictures in a more manageable and space-saving way. Didn't happen. But as I've been looking at the photos I've realized:

1. Life has been so good.
2. Life has been filled with adventures, less-traveled roads.
3. Living in Alabama was blissful - all 2 1/2 years, and if I could turn back time, it would be to this time-period, this place.
4. My kids have been my best friends.
5. Family and friends - not landscapes, are the key figures in all the photos.
6. As with yesterday's post, photos are an amazing record.
7. I used to be artistic!
8. We have met some beautiful people who have become the most beautiful friends.
9. It is so important to develop your talents, and then share them.
10. Starting over is hard.
11. New beginnings are exciting, even when they're scary.
12. It's all about the stories - I love a good story. 

I sat with 8 chaplains a few months ago, and we worked through a "dying" scenario, where we wrote 20 things in 5 categories on slips of paper. As we got to different points in the story, we gave up something from a category or two. At the end of this story, we were left with 3 slips of paper, which was supposed to represent the things we valued the most - in this life. My remaining 3 slips of paper included Photos, Family, Memories.

It wasn't too soon after this that I discovered my tumor.

Pictures from 2004