Why you should invest in family photos!
When my kids were a little younger, we lived in Maryland. There was a large wall just past the kitchen and just before the family room where we had a collage of various sizes of framed family photos. I would find myself slowly strolling down this wall evoking many fond memories of joy. The kids loved seeing their faces plastered on the wall and would tell stories about the day when the photo was taken and what they were doing and thinking. It was a conversation wall. Friends, family and guests would come over and engage in stories about shared experiences, or their family, or other fun times.
We’ve moved twice since then, moving away from Maryland 7 years ago. I carefully packed up all the framed photos into boxes and bins, adding them to the collection of other boxes and bins of photos I already had. Those boxes just sat in the storage area of our house in New York, and a few years later they arrived to our new home here in North Carolina, still sealed shut.
A month or so ago, my daughter asked when we were going to put up the photo wall again. She said that if this is our forever house, let’s make it look like we live here! So when our oldest came to visit recently, we went into the attic and took down all the boxes of photos we could find. Recreating this photo wall turned into an all day project, but it wasn’t because it was a lot of work. It was a big job, but not a daunting task. Much of the time was spent sitting in a circle passing around the photos, and laughing about the silly outfits or hairstyles, or announcing that this photo HAS to go on the wall! We then got busy hammering in nails and hanging the frames. There’s some room to add some more recent photos, and there are plenty of other photos so now we are talking about adding a second photo wall upstairs!
It filled my heart with such joy seeing how excited my kids were looking through all the family photos. It’s as if it gave them a sense of self and belonging, and importance seeing themselves with their family. I’ve done several annual photo books through the years, and other photo books for special vacations and occasions. I currently have a folder on my desktop with photos for a 2017 book, and another folder labeled “to print.” I am now very motivated to finish up the books and print the photos. They aren’t doing any good just sitting on my laptop. They need to be in print and displayed for the people that I love most to enjoy.