31 Days :: Why Memory Keeping Matters
This is the second day in a series: 31 Days of Memory Keeping, check out all the posts here.
I think it is important to establish why memory keeping matters.
Let me start by sharing how memory keeping first came into my life.
Growing up, my mom did a lot to record our family’s story.
My sister and I have a photo album for each year of our life. (And for the 80s and 90s, that is incredible!)
We have baby books that are chock full of firsts, shot dates, certificates of achievement and photos.
We have school books with handwriting samples, report cards and school play programs.
We have a few precious VHS tapes that contain footage of every day ordinary and special trips.
My mom demonstrated through memory keeping that our stories mattered and were worth telling.
As an adult and mother, I have clung to this truth: our stories matter.
I want my children to know that they were loved every minute of every day, and memory keeping is an outlet for communicating that message.
Memory keeping is the opportunity to leave a tangible legacy for our children and family members.
Memory keeping is so much more than scrapbook paper and stickers (though that can certainly be part of it).
Memory keeping is using any medium to document a story or single moment in time.
In my life, I have found that the more ways I incorporate memory keeping into my life, the more blessings I discover from God.
He truly has made our lives beautiful.
The smiles from our kids.
A tender hug from a spouse.
Special family outings.
These are the moments that make a life extraordinary.
During the course of this month, we are going to explore many facets of memory keeping. I hope by the end of it, you will have been inspired to document stories like only you can.
Because God has made each story beautiful and worth documenting.
Wow, I love this post. I have always loved you heart for making memories. I think the thing I need to remember when attempting to do that is to think in perspective, how much these memories are going to be loved a few years from now.
Looking forward to these posts. 🙂
I love this post! So true! My own mom was very young and there are very few pictures of me as a baby or even before I was 5 or so. It has often felt as if I wasn’t very important. As a mom, I take pictures of EVERYTHING!! I’m always behind on scrapbooking, but I’m always working on it! I just became a follower, so I am excited to see the rest of the month!
This is a beautiful idea. I have greived over the reel to reel movies that my grandpa had made of my sisters and I growing up, when my grandma moved to an assisted living home she and my mom threw them away into the dumpster saying, no one wants these old things. Not realizing that now they can be made into vhs or even perhaps a dvd. The reels went right along with the old ‘camera’ that played them. I remember some good memories of having popcorn and watching those silly girls playing on the screen. Very few good memories have been gone for years.
What a beautiful post to start off with!! Looking forward to this series!
I can echo this same sentiment – only from the opposite end of the spectrum. I have so few photos. No records that I know of. No videos, no baby books of my own childhood. Each image becomes so so special b/c there are just so few of them.
Because of that, because I wish I could see more of my grandparents and parents from way back when, I’ve tried to do better with my own kids. 🙂
Looking forward to your series, girl. I’m good at some things, but missing many important things in others aspects. You’ll be our leader! Hugs!
Well, my goal is to inspire, so I hope to help in some way. 🙂
Last weekend I found a heap of VHS tapes in a box of books my mum gave to me for my collection. In amonst the cartoons and movies my sister & I watched as kids were half a dozen tapes with “Chantelle 0-3mths” and “Candice 6-12mths” on the labels. The first thing I did was pull them out of the bottom of the box, put them in front of the TV and phoned my dad to ask to borrow his old VHS to DVD recorder. I can hardly wait until the weekend when I get to sit down and watch them all for the first time in over a decade!
One minor complaint – why can’t you post all 31 days at once so that I can sit down tonight and read them with a cup of tea while hubby & bubby are out and about! I suppose I’m just going to have to be patient and read the posts bit by bit over the next month, eh? 🙂
I guess you could come back on November 1 and read them all in one sitting. 🙂
Such a beautiful truth! I am trying hard to keep my little one’s baby book up-to-date and plan on making a photo book scrapbook for each year of his life, as well as for his due-in-the-spring sibling. I’m also video taping, audio recording, and my husband and I are going to be writing them letters every year on their birthdays.
I just came across your series and am looking forward to reading it all the way through!