The Reasons Why…

I was just reading Susan’s blog at Rhythm in Life and she wrote a post about flipping through the pages of her wedding album. She writes about how she has been avoiding it for a while and how it brings back memories both happy and sad. She says the album reminds her of people that have passed on, relationships that have ceased to exist, people she wished she had by her side when she said her vows, the faith her partner had in her to travel all the way to Uganda to say their vows, his compassion, their special moment, etc. I thought it was a beautiful post.

While I read her post, I connected with it almost immediately. As I wrote in my little comment to her post, flipping through photo albums is a very special feeling for me.

When I look at photo albums, it reminds me of my mum. It reminds me of her because it has always been ‘our thing’ to do together. I live away from my parents…continents away. I get to see them once a year at best for multiple reasons. But whenever I do, my mother and I spend an entire afternoon flipping through the photo albums together. These are photos we have seen many times over but we like it nevertheless. And the feeling of photos developed from films have a much nicer feeling about them than those taken on digital cameras. In a way, it is the same difference I find between paperback books and kindle versions.

Susan is right about photographs being a reminder of relationships that existed and people that were and situations that were. But to me it is a nice reminder in a certain sense. Yes, people change. Relationships change. Dynamics change. In my case I find that many a times, I tend to remember why certain things changed. I tend to remember the reasons why certain people aren’t a part of my life anymore…could be fights, could be petty things or it could be that they passed on since. But I tend to remember those things.

But when I look at a picture, I see smiles, I see reasons for why or how these people were a part of my life. I see why these people were important to me. I see how they stood by me. I see how these memories were made. I see how in that moment we were smiling and happy. I see why they meant so much to me. I see how they made me happy.

And these are important reasons to remember….

*****

If you haven’t made friends with Susan yet, please do visit her blog. I only recently started following her journey myself but I find that she has incredible stories to share.