I take hundreds of photos every month, and most of them don’t get shared with anyone, let alone online. And yet the moments in time that those photos capture are just as important a part of our story as the other images that I do choose to share.
I originally created this blog as a way of documenting our lives, a way of watching the girls grow into who they’re going to be and a way of remembering who they once were. It’s something I want them to be able to look back on as they get older, because memories fade but (digital) photographs don’t.
It’s easy (and tempting) to only focus on sharing the fun bits, the memorable parts, the highlights and the celebrations. But I’m learning more and more as I continue through this crazy journey of motherhood that it’s really important to me that I capture the ordinary, everyday times that we spend together as well. The bits of the jigsaw that fill in the gaps to complete the picture. The tantalising glimpses into who our girls are becoming.
The chaos, the calm and all the moments in between.
This monthly feature – The Moments In Between – is a space for me to share all of those magical bits that would otherwise just stay in a folder on my laptop, never to see the light of day.
OCTOBER
October has felt like a struggle – mentally, physically, emotionally and creatively. At one point I was seriously wondering whether I would even have any images to share in this post as for the first three weeks of the month I didn’t pick up my camera at all. I couldn’t find the light, couldn’t ‘see’ the shots, didn’t have the energy to document anything because nothing seemed worth documenting.
Looking back over the month now of course I realise that last part of the previous sentence is nonsense – everything is worth documenting because it’s all part of our story. Even the tough times, even the ordinary ‘nothing’ kinds of days, even the days where the light is crappy and no one co-operates. Sometimes it’s just hard to remember that in the moment and choose to pick the camera up anyway.
As a result there are far fewer photographs to share than usual this month. I still love them. They’re still memories of the good times we had in between the stresses (and the rain). Just because there’s a smaller number doesn’t make them any less important or significant.
I still remember every detail, every movement, every gesture and expression, from every image. The exact reason why I pressed the shutter in that moment. The thoughts I was thinking and the feelings I was feeling. The words that were said. They’re so much more than just photographs. They all have a significance for me far deeper than the surface level of what you see.
Every single one brings back layers and layers of meaning, not just of the moment in the picture but of moments gone before and now, looking back at them, the moments that came afterwards too. Every single one speaks to me in so many ways. Every single one is a piece of our jigsaw. Every single one is like a sentence in our life story.
This is us.
