Memories... lots of memories. Some are happy and some are sad of good times and bad. Unfortunately, we can not always pick and choose what happens in our lives. As much as we try to block out certain things from our minds - they stick. Good memories and bad. I am very fortunate to have more good than bad.I lost my father when I was only 17 years old. A senior in high school and dealing with the death of a parent. Not an easy time but I don't think it would have been any easier if it happened 20 years later either. Losing someone that you love is never easy. So yes - bad memory. I have some very special memories of my father and that's what I try to focus on. Even though it has been 24 years now since I lost my Dad - I still think about him every day. A song will play on the radio that he used to like, I will hear myself say something that my Dad would have said, I pass by his picture a dozen times a day or my heart will just feel heavy. I think that is his way of telling me that he is still with me. I couldn't tell you how many times over the past 24 years that I wish I could have asked him for advice, cried on his shoulder or just talked with him.When I became a parent for the first time it hit me really hard that my Dad would never see or hold his grandson. My son knows my Dad from photographs and the stories that I would tell him. Now that he is a father and I am a grandmother - I realize even more just how important those pictures and stories are. I think that is the main reason that I started scrapbooking. If I could put a story or feeling along with the picture, I could preserve a little bit of that memory for my grandson. He would then have something to share with his children and their children and so on.Most of us have a photo box, shoe box, picture album or an envelope full of pictures. How many of those pictures have a date written on them? How many of those pictures identify who is in the picture or where the picture was taken? How many of those pictures can tell the whole story of what was going on when the picture was taken? I know mine don't! I can't even begin to think how many hours I have spent just trying to figure out dates of when a picture was taken. Old family pictures are the worst for me. Even though I may know who is in the picture - I have no idea when or where it was taken. Then I have to ask my Mom or some other family member if they know and most of the time it is a process to figure it out. Half the time I think we just guesstimate.Now when I get pictures developed - they are always dated! At least that way 40 years from now - someone will at least know when.I scrapbook for pleasure too though. I find it to be very therapeutic. If I am having a bad day and feel like I am going to explode on someone - I scrapbook. It is relaxing - even if I don't manage to finish the page. I may have only picked the pictures that I am going to use and sketched out the layout. I still had that me time. It may have only been 15 minutes or so but I was in my space surrounded by paper, punches, embellishments, possibilities and bliss.
