Truths: A picture is worth a thousand words

The other day I was downloading (or uploading) photos from my trip to Cali and for whatever techie reason – my Kodak photo program kept erroring out. It has been happening a lot and since I am not a tech – I just ignore it.

Well, this time got me worried – we know the computer Gods have not been on my side lately – I dodged a big bullet just a few months ago – when my computer crashed but they were able to save my hard drive which meant they saved my pictures…

So, I wasn’t going to take any chances and decided to transfer all of the Kodak pictures to the Apple software iphoto. There were 3000 pictures spanning the last 5 plus years of my life.

As I made the transfer – I actually got to see all of the pictures flash before my eyes. And ironically, since I had Pandora playing on my computer (if you don’t know what this is – I feel like I have to tell you… My future son-in-law, Dave showed it to me in CA. So you go to Pandora.com and set up an account – its free – and then you get to put in an artist, song, etc and you set-up your own radio station that randomly plays music in that genre. I love it… I hear songs I like that I would never have heard otherwise. There are a few commercials – hey they have to pay for it somehow – but it really is the coolest thing.)

So, anyway, my genre was Lifehouse and the music was playing and my pictures were flashing before my eyes and somewhere between Abby going to 1st grade and graduating 5th grade – it hit me: this was a slideshow of my life.

My life – the last 5 years – one picture at a time – in front of me. Christmas, Easter, the cabin remodel, the pregnant cats and kittens I fostered, the puppy mill auctions, our trip to the Grand Canyon, my renunion, my friends, my family. Everything I love and everything I had done – one second at a time.

The music made it even better, music I like…. In some ways it was like being at my own funeral – thinking about how this would be what they would show. (Which is creepy and dark to think about, I know…)

But, the point is –if you keep pictures of your life and have easy access to them – it is well worth doing this exercise because you realize in a matter of 10 minutes what is important in your life: what matters – because we take photos of the things we care most about – the things and people who we love.

And, I think that on daily basis we don’t think about that enough. Our days are hectic with our jobs and mindless chores and to do lists and we overlook what we love, who we love. We are always trying to get through today – with the hope of tomorrow being better and the people we love get ignored and the things that we are passionate about have to wait another day.

What if that was my funeral slide show? What was it missing – how did I feel about it? Was it enough?

It was actually. In fact, it made me realize what a blessed life I have – embracing my passions and surrounded by the people I love. Sure there were things I have yet to accomplish but I am working on those… This really wasn’t my funeral slide show so I hope I still have some time left.

But, even though I was happy with what I saw – it was still a good reminder to make efforts to keep in touch with my friends and my family – to have more get togethers – to share each others lives more often and enjoy each other’s company.

It also reminded me to keep going… to keep trudging thru and pursuing what matters… And, of course, photographing it all – because when the holiday is over, or the event has ended, or the accomplishment fades away – they are always alive and in color in photos.