A "Need" to Write Down Our Stories

Over the past few weeks, I have been working on photo books, a task I have been meaning to do for a long time.

It's harder than it looks - and quite time-consuming.

I have to be in a "zone" to do it... No distractions to interrupt my train of thought, as I choose the photos I want to keep and then write the text - a story of a special vacation or a certain year in the life of our family.

Recently I moved my old laptop into the basement - to be nearer the modem - which makes uploading photos quicker, I think... We changed internet providers a few months ago. Our new service is a lot cheaper, but our new modem signal doesn't always reach my favorite sitting area which is one floor up, at the back of the house. So I've moved to be closer to the modem.

This dark basement space was well-used when our children were young and our sons played video games with friends, or our daughter wanted to be left alone to watch her own TV shows. But in recent years, it hasn't been used much except to store things we don't need very often, among them... my mother's photo albums.

Looking through them from time to time, I see that she too felt the need to organize her photos when she retired. The albums look well-worn, as if she looked at them frequently.

As I make my own photo albums, I realize that I'm probably doing them for myself as much as for anyone else... I derive great joy from looking back and remembering...