Tuesday, August 06, 2019

musings on life

I keep blogging and writing about our days as a family because although each day I think, surely I will remember these days as they were, past history tells me I won't.
I forget and memories fade. Daily experiences lose their impressions and their freshness.
The days expire and the uniqueness of each day is lost as the weeks blend into months and years of habits and routines.
I have been thinking about my use of photography over the years to capture all sorts of things and how I unintentionally captured images of people and places as they no longer are.
I didn't expect some things to change, but enjoyed taking a photo of it as a moment's record.
Instead I have come to see how regularly things change. Trees get cut down, buildings get built, children grow taller, people get older and the landscape changes.



When we bought our first home and moved out to a small town that was divided by a gentle river, I took my camera on almost every walk and wander. I had no way to know that in the ten years we lived by that river how many changes that particular landscape would undergo.


And while some of those things sadden me, it also intrigues me, so I'm inspired to keep recording moments and noting the everyday because I have little control over what around me will change next.

And while most weeks follow a similar pattern, no Monday is exactly like last Monday, no Friday happens the same either. And of course, that sounds embarrassingly simple and trite to say, but with our routines and schedules, the days run together like a ribbon on a spool and we get used to expecting that our thoughts and reactions will remain constant throughout.
But with every news item I hear or read, with every conversation I have with others, with every book or article I read, every movie or show I watch, every message, sermon or podcast I listen to, I am getting something not from my own mind. I may agree with it, I may think exactly the same, but I am still receiving input that shapes me and changes me even in subtle ways.

Last week we spent a few minutes watching homemade videos from ten years ago as we celebrated our youngest's tenth birthday. Words fail to convey how the mind grapples with these moments and memories; they were as real as this day is, but now they appear almost as a dream.
Today is another collection of moments and memories, ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. Living is both complex and simple. Routines and habits make life simple. Emotions and experiences bring complexity. Life is the process of both woven together without prescience. And there's the rub, but also the point of capturing life's moments in whatever medium we choose. We are unfamiliar with the future so we prepare by bringing the past with us. I continue to use this place and other areas to do that. I also want to keep taking pictures.

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