Lately I’ve been spending time sorting through photos and finally getting them printed. I go through phases where alot of my energy goes into worrying myself sick that Georgie and James won’t have any printed or digital memories of their lives as kids. That all the pictures I take and the videos I make will somehow be a waste. And then last night, just as I was about to start scrolling through my photos and ticking the boxes of all the ones I want to keep forever, I realised that I have already been doing something great for my babies.
I’ve been keeping a diary for Georgie since before he was born. Doctor appointments and ultrasounds, his birth and our lives as a family of three. When I sometimes read through the little notes I jotted down and long paragraphs I wrote about a specific incident I imagine giving these little diaries to him when he’s older. Isn’t that amazing? Every time I write something new I feel I am investing in my baby’s life story. I started doing the same for James shortly after he was born.
With just a pen and some paper there’s a sense of security, that I don’t have to rely on technology to store my family’s memories. As a society, we’ve become so obsessed with visuals we’re forgetting how powerful the written word can be. Even if it is just ours. Of course, there’s no way to replace any of the hundreds of videos or thousands of photos I have right now but thinking about those little diaries last night made me happy.
I’m planning on expanding the diaries to a sort of scrap-book version. With photos and other memorabilia. What do you think?
