The present has become the past

Sometimes realization can be unsettling.  This morning I considered that my recent "present" had become my "past", and I didn't much like the idea.  Yesterday was my husband's birthday and he wasn't here to celebrate it.  He never was fond of having his picture taken and I've had a time this past week coming up with a group of photos of him.

I'm gathering all the family pictures to begin hanging them on that wall between the windows.  I have a pile of framed photos that need to hang.

a display of those that will stand

a drawer of snapshots

and albums I've put together with some of the oldest photos of my husband's family.

I've been weeding snapshots.  When I think about how few pictures there are of our early family and how many we have now, I realize that I don't need to keep a record of every activity, every birthday or Christmas, every change of appearance that was part of our lives.  I only need representative photos.  It becomes a burden - and one that often gets passed along to our families - when we keep too many things that remind us of our lives.  If we lived them well, we have strong memories of those good times.  The people in our lives change, and change the way they look, but we don't need reminders of every step of the way, do we?