Capturing History with Images & Stories (D152)

How many stories do you have locked inside your head and heart? Are they stories from your childhood, your teen years, or even college days? Whether positive and uplifting or embarrassing lessons learned, we each hold valuable or at least entertaining stories like a deep well within us.

Kind of like my grandmother who is 95 years old, the stories she has locked inside her mind are absolutely astonishing. The tragedy is that we don’t have a record of many of those stories. Although we’ve tried to capture some with a mini recorder and a few by writing them down after she shared them, she refuses to be videotaped or recorded.

Don’t let that happen to your stories. Find a way to share them with the world, even if it’s by capturing images that spark the stories you hold. That’s what I captured today…

This painted shell holds a memory and story that I’ve shared briefly before on my blog and in the Unclutter Your Life in One Week videos. But, I didn’t have any images of it that would outlast the shell. I’m amazed it’s lasted intact for this long!

This shell brings back some of the few positive memories I have of my dad. We were camping in Washington state, sleeping in a tent, and eating campfire cooked dinners of whatever we caught while fishing earlier in the day. We did so much outdoor camping for vacations that I didn’t even know you could stay in a hotel until I was in high school. And then I was spoiled forever, no more roughing it for me if I can help it!

So this one camping trip was when I was probably 9 or 10 years old. We had driven to the water and were taking a break from fishing. The outgoing person my dad is, he started talking to many of the locals. One of the people he met was a painter and she painted landscapes on seashells. The intricate details were surprising. The more you study it, the more you start to see all the attention the painter paid to the details.

Before my dad bought this shell for me, he asked the painter to add me to the grass looking out over the water. Do you see it? Right in the left hand bottom corner? Me, looking out at the mountains and the sea (certainly fits the tasra mar vision). Remember an earlier post I did with images of what I wanted to see every morning when I woke up? Is it any wonder where I get it from?

Manual: Page 30—Image Quality and Size

Images: Looked at images from the upcoming Mom 2.0 Summit Exhibit. Check out the intro video below… inspiring.