Tag Archives: Family photos

Gratitude

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This has been a challenging week on a number of levels. When things turn difficult, I try to be mindful of the good in my life. After all, negativity breeds more negativity and it’s easy to become so focused on the bad that you can see nothing else. Gratitude is a key to happiness.

Here are some things I’m grateful for today:

1. It’s Friday and it’s a long weekend for some of us here in the US.

2. I have plans to see my cousin this weekend. Before starting my No Spend Challenge, I decided to give myself a budget for a movie and lunch out because I have been that excited to see the new Tom Hanks movie. We will walk in the sunshine, see the movie and have a bite somewhere.

3. I’m reading a really good book right now. A Man Called Ove is actually the basis for the movie I’m going to see. The curmudgeonly hero is quite relatable.

4. I spent last night doing fun chores including some decluttering and styling shelves with things I already owned. Decluttering doesn’t equate drudgery and can actually be fun!

5. Season three of All Creatures Great and Small on PBS began Sunday night. It’s a short season of just seven episodes but for those seven weeks I have a reason to look forward to Sunday night. If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend starting with season one. It’s the best thing on tv right now.

6. I have a roof over my head and can afford to buy groceries. Many people are not so fortunate right now.

7. Adventure season is just around the corner and I think there will be some good ones this year.

8. Pictures are a return ticket to places and people we want to remember. The above picture is from a rainy Saturday in NYC. The below picture was sent to me by a cousin this week. That’s me with my parents in 1977. What an angry baby! Looks like I could have benefited from some gratitude way back then!

9. My cat likes me and has spent as much time with me as possible this week. He is a sweetheart.

This is not the full list but these are the highlights. What are you grateful for today?

Picnic At Walnut Grove

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IMG_E3838My Grandma and Grandpa Betts have been gone for a lot of years. Grandpa left us in July 1993 and she followed in November 1995. While the official cause of death was congestive heart failure,  I stand by my belief that she died of a broken heart.

I’ve seen many old photos of them but, at some point, all the old photos become familiar. And with them gone there’s no opportunity to take more pictures. That makes finding new-to-me pictures that much more special

One night last year, my oldest and dearest friend sent me a picture that had come from a box at her grandma’s house. According to the back, it was a Sunday School picnic at Walnut Grove Church –  her family’s church. She thought I would enjoy it, not knowing that it was a picture of my own family.

I saw it first on my phone and it took a minute to register what I was seeing. The air went out of the room when I realized I was looking at my own grandparents decades before I knew them.

Nearly every person in this picture is related to me and it was a thrill to sit down with my dad and figure out who some of them are. There are still a few mysteries but we have identified most.

Grandma and Grandpa close upIn case you’re interested, my grandpa was named Earl and he’s the handsome, dark haired man in the back, standing third from left. His bride, Garnet, is standing just in front of him and slightly to the right. She’s holding in her arms their first born child.

I think they make a handsome couple.

Photographs are so important. They give us insight into our past, they preserve people and moments we want to remember. They are a connection to a moment that we’ll never get back. And sometimes, photographs give us back the people we loved and show us a side of them we never knew before.