T r e a s u r e d   M o m e n t s   I n   T i m e

*****

Reach out for the joy and the sorrow
Put them away in your mind
The mem'ries are time that you borrow
To spend when you get to tomorrow

So gather moments while you may
Collect the dreams you dream today
Remember, will you remember
The times of your life?*

*****

I walked outside on a snowy eve to simply take out the trash. The light was shining on the glittering, powdery flakes falling around the deck. At first, I thought the silver glimmers were just more particles of snow, but upon closer inspection I saw it was the miniscule silken threads of a spider's web. Lovingly, in the bitter cold and falling snow, she had spun a web to begin her long, arduous task of creating an egg sack that would hold the tiny creatures that would burst forth the following spring. I had been privy to a wondrous site that night. It was the winter of 1979. It was a treasured moment caught in time.

We each have them – these small, seeming inconsequential moments that barely seem worth remembering. Yet, it is often these times that make an impact upon our memory. Yes, the larger times, the bigger-than-life occasions are the ones that we are well documented, well photographed, and most often scrapped in the albums. But, it is the small times, the moments that often whisper by, like angel wings against our cheeks, that we wish, years later, we had recorded as well.

In scrapbook albums you'll find the first tooth lost, the first haircut, the first dance, the big homerun of the season. Will you also find the time your firstborn crawled into your lap for the last time, scraped their knee and you had to kiss it, left on their third date with a strange boy with two colors of hair? In your albums, are the smaller moments recorded, the lesser days, the spiders spinning their webs?

It was 1979, my senior year in high school. I cannot tell you the score of the world series, the name of the homecoming queen that year, what I was wearing that night or whether or not I got a good grade on the exams for which I was studying; but, I remember the spider and all the details surrounding her glorious web. These are the moments of which life is made. These are the moments to treasure. Are these the moments that are recorded in your albums along side the greater ones?

This month, as we're gathering together photos of things we love, things we cherish, I encourage you to also look for those lesser things, the smaller moments, the ones that don't stand out in full force. Reflect upon them and try to remember how you felt at the moment the photo was taken. Record those feelings and scrap those moments. They are truly the treasured times of your life.

* Recorded by Paul Anka. Words and lyrics by William M. Lane and Roger S. Nichols

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Mackey "Mac" Stanley

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