Timeline of Life

As I sit here during a blizzard organizing pictures on my computer while my children eat their dinner I can’t help but reminisce on all the things that has happened over the years. Photos of me in high school and college with my friends, times from fixing up my house, and watching my children grow from the time they were the size of a gummy bear in my belly until now when they are standing beside me, the tops of their heads reaching up to my waist.

My family is big on capturing moments, both small and large, so we can look back over the years and see how we have grown and remember the small things that have slipped our minds. Capturing moments doesn’t have to be in pictures or videos though. Every year since my sisters and I were small my Mom writes a Christmas letter to our family and friends giving them an over view of how old we are, things we currently like, and what we have been doing during the year. It’s funny though, while things like our favorite colors, boyfriends, or our schools changed throughout the years who we are at our core has managed to stay the same. Now that I am “grown” with children of my own I have started the tradition with my own family so when my children are older they can look back as well.

All the pictures, videos, letters and stories all help to create the timeline of our lives. They help tell the story of who we are as we grow. Those things show us who we were as a person at that period in our lives. While there are events that occur in our lives can alter us, whether that is for the better or worse, it is up to us to decide how we change and grow from those experiences. We can either let them break our true selves or let them make us into a better version of it.

Looking back over the twenty plus years of Christmas letters, home movies from the video camera, and my entire life’s worth of photos I can see who I was as a child that I might have otherwise forgot. I am grateful that I can look back and realize I am and strive to continue to be a beautiful, kind, compassionate, and smart human being. Reflecting on the past and present shows me that I tend to have my own sense of style, try to do everything on my own, and am a mess of contradictions. Knowing who I am at my core leads me to be confident in who I am as a women, a mother, daughter, and friend.

My friends- take the picture, write in the journal, tell the story, and share the memories. If not for you then do it for your family and your children as they grow so they can see the timeline of their lives. They won’t remember what happens when they are children, and one day we will forget the small things too, but the things that we take note of now will be cherished in time.