“Memories are not the key to the past, but to the future.”  Corrie Ten Boom

People ask me why I do what I do and why am I so passionate about it?

Those who are gone are not forgotten!  They are always with us in our hearts and minds.  I spoke to my mother almost every single day of my life until she died unexpectedly of Lymphoma.  I desperately wish I had more photographs to remember her vitality and joie-de-vivre and to eventually share with my grandchildren. The same goes for my Dad and grandmother.

“Take care of your memories for you cannot relive them.”  Bob Dylan

On a sunny afternoon in Positano

Don’t make the mistakes many of us make.   I was always the one who wanted to take photographs so I wasn’t usually in the picture.  If I was busy, playing hostess or dancing at a wedding, I often let it slip.  I usually asked someone else to do it but it wasn’t their priority so once again… ‘no pictures’.  Even if you only have a smartphone, snap away!  They take great photos! One of my sons captures moments and memories through his music and these tell ‘his’ stories. My passion and inspiration is gardening and I capture the moments through my photography.  Capture the moment and the memory forever!

Cherish your memories and visit them often and share them!  Record the memories and the events of your life!  They are the key to the future of your family. Look for the happy moment in each when you look at your photos.  What was it that inspired you to take that picture?

What inspires you? Is it writing, music, running, playing an instrument, poetry, sports, photography or gardening?

“Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid and heartwarming!” Joseph B. Wirthlin

My parents gifted me money to get my landscaping well under way.  I had just purchased my dream house and I wanted the gardens established quickly. I wish I had found the time to take more photographs to preserve my memories.  It was never the right time!  That was 2005 and through an unfortunate set of “wrong place”, “wrong time” we lost the house in a foreclosure that occurred when my husband and I lost a company we had purchased prior to the recession of 2008.  Sadly, our homes were collateral for our business and a 50 year old company disappeared almost before our very eyes.  I never took enough photos and was thinking I would wait until the garden grew into itself.  I always thought “tomorrow” would be soon enough. I wished I had taken more photographs of my dream house and gardens.

Now they are a memory only to me!  The following is an excerpt from a song in the movie Yentl called A Piece of Sky that has always had great significance for me.  There is so much to experience in this world.  Why ever stop searching for it all? I will always want to experience more!

“No matter where I go,

There’ll be memories that tug at my sleeve,

But there will also be more to question,

Yet more to believe…” Yentl – Barbra Streisand

I may have lost my dream house but the truth is I can create another garden and another memory TODAY! What memories would you recreate TODAY if you could?

Photos are our connection to our past but we don’t always know what those connections are. It’s wonderful to look back but we must look forward. What are the photographs you are going to take NOW? This is what being alive is about our opportunities from now on!  What will those photos mean to us and future generations? We must put mindfulness and intention into them. How will your grandchildren and great-grandchildren know you?  Will they see your sense of style and your personality in those photos you leave behind?  Tell your stories through your photographs and not just in the ones you have already taken, but in the photos you have yet to take!  What was important to you may be important to them and they didn’t know there was a connection.  Are you a painter or a gardener? Was your great grandfather a painter too or do your children share your passion for gardening?

“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.” Rosa Parks

When I look back through old photographs I see images that make me laugh, like bad hairdos, or make me cry, like my Mom in the hospital dying but ALWAYS, ALWAYS I remember the wonderful, loving times of them all and I can laugh.  Laughter is a key ingredient to finding happiness.  Laugh at the absurd and at yourself … often! I try not to take myself too seriously as life is so unpredictable.  Just when we think we have it figured out, it fools us again. We can’t take life for granted though! Don’t take nature for granted! Nature goes through cycles like life!  Spring is a time for reawakening and every year we have a chance to start fresh. Keep exploring, seek out new experiences and opportunities.  Keep believing and sharing with those you love.  Those moments of sharing forever bind us to our loved ones.  They comfort and sustain us in times of sorrow and are the cornerstones of great joy.

Here are some of my most precious memories:

Steamboat Springs ski vacation with my precious sons

Relaxing on Martha’s Vineyard one of my favorite places!

Edgartown Lighthouse

Daddy!

Another Half Marathon completed! Aim high you never know what you can accomplish unless you try!

Ziplining in Belize! Bucket List!!!