Do you ever wonder what life was like for our grandparents? Or better yet – their grandparents? What did their days look like? What were their afternoons like when they got home from work? What was the parenting / work life balance like back then? What were their favorite holiday traditions?
I find myself wondering those things often. In some ways the thought encourages me to simplify my days so that I have room left for the long-term things of value (and short term) like – family, true rest, days outside..
Lately I have wondered about my great grandparents – what did holidays look like for them?
Back in September I took most of the month of to rest with our little girl. My project during that time was to consolidate, organize and preserve the TUBS of loose pictures I’ve accumulated through the years. We moved this past Summer (just 10 minutes away!) and it was then that I realized I had a problem. Ha!
During this deep dive, though, I found a treasure that I didn’t realize I had. It was an old photo of my great grandparents. I can’t believe I had it and now it lives in a safe place, but the thought crossed my mind – this photo has lived through MANY years. Many hands. And somehow at some point landed in mine. It isn’t backed up. There is no “digital” copy of it. There is no other. This is the only one and yet – it made it this far. I didn’t have to restore an old computer that didn’t exist in order to download and print it off. No, I found it in a physical form – and somehow, I think it’s because it was printed each hand it passed through realized how special it was.
What I would give to have more that show their lifestyles and what their days look like. But in that time – photos were few and far between. And when they were taken they were printed. There was no such thing as a picture being “digital.” A picture had way more weight in that period.
It makes me wonder how many of our current family histories are going to last for our great grandkids? Will they have any physical thing to hold on to when they can’t hold onto us? Or are we leaving everything of our legacy on a digital app that we have ZERO control over. We don’t own it. Heck, it could be gone tomorrow along with every single one of your favorite memories of your children, your spouse, your family vacations.
Apart from Jesus – my family is my greatest treasure. I want to preserve every little piece of it that I can – especially of our little girl.
This is a long post to say – print your photos. Don’t book a photo session without the long term thought of how you will make them physical. Preserve them. Pass them down. I promise when your great grandchild finds them one day – it will have more value than gold.
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