Gratitude Day #29
Today I am grateful for photography.
As I have written these gratitude posts, I have found myself scrolling through hundreds of photos of my family and my friends. Each one I have looked at sparked a special memory or feeling deep inside.
When I was recently in Portland, OR to do some filming for Harmony's college classes, she brought out a notebook I had kept for each of the kids that contained special stories, ancestor charts, and photographs of ancestors. Many of them were being displayed behind me, both on a table and on the wall.
As they fussed around me, I was trying be still and obedient while Harmony directed everyone into positions. As I was looking at one of the larger cameras, a reflection from the wall behind me showed up in the camera lens - a photograph of my grandmother. As the camera changed positions, one by one different ancestor photographs would be reflected for me to see for a brief moment.
The camera was on me, but the ancestors were behind me.
I have used this month to recall travels with our children, holidays, extended family who are no longer alive, Kerry's parents, my parents, just so many, many memories that often caused me to catch myself.
As I get older, I thrive on those memories, and hope they are never taken from me.
In one of the final seasons of "The Walton", Earl Hamner wrote something so poignant that I often refer to it as I am researching:
"Appalachian Portrait, by Earl Hamner...
There is something within us that tells us all we will ever know about ourselves. There is a destiny that tells us where we will be born, where we will live, and where we will die.
Some men are drawn to oceans, they cannot breathe unless the air is scented with a salty mist. Others are drawn to land that is flat, and the air is sullen and is leaden as August.
My people were drawn to the mountains. They came when the country was young and they settled in the upland country of Virginia that is still misted with a haze of blue which gives those mountains their name.
They endured, and they prevailed; through flood and famine, diptheria and scarlet fever, through drought and forest fire, whooping cough and loneliness, through Indian wars, a civil war, a world war, and through the great Depression they endured and prevailed.
Grandpa, in memory I touch your face. A distance from me now, I feel you near…you will endure through all of time.
Grandma, I touch your hand and when I do I touch the past. I touch all the ships that brought us to this country and all the strong brave women who faced the frontier and made it home.
Strength and love came together here. All I ever want is what they’ve had so long.
A brother with an alien name. A first baseman grown to wife and mother. A pretty girl deepens into a beauty. A little sister full of wonder. And close to us as family were our neighbors linked to us in ties as strong as blood.
I have walked the land in the footsteps of my fathers. I saw yesterday and now look to tomorrow."
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