A boxed life....

Rich and I were cleaning out a closet this past weekend.  It had boxes and boxes of old pictures and keepsakes.  None of which were sorted out very good, but everything was there.  As we looked through the old pictures of ourselves and our lives, we laughed a little and I teared up a little.  It was all there, captured in a photograph, all the moments of our lives...This is why I am so passionate about photography.  It is the only way to stop a moment in time, to preserve it for as long as someone wants to keep it around.  I found pictures of myself in a bikini, when I actually looked good in a bikini and Rich, when he had the body of a body builder.  It all came from hard work.  He never went to a health club or owned any weights.  All those muscle came from working so hard for his family.  I did work out and at one point, didn't look half bad.  As we looked at all our pictures and all our trips and all the pictures of the kids, I wondered, if when I was gone...would anyone really care.  I knew as I sorted through these pictures and boxed them up, the next time someone would be looking at these, would probably be after I was gone.  Our life, in a box....
Time has away of just marching on....and it will just keep marching on even after I am gone.  I used to think about that, I couldn't imagine life going on with out me in it, but I realize now, that I am only on this earth for a very short time and when I am gone, I am not even a blip in the overall scheme of things.  My loved ones will mourn me, at least I hope, but I want them to just go on and live their lives.  I just hope I leave enough behind that I won't be completely forgotten.  I want them to know what I thought about when I was young and want them to know that I was young once.  I wasn't always old.  Old is how you will be remembered unless you leave this earth too soon.  I blog for my grandchildren, I want them to always remember their Mimi.  I want them to remember the person I used to be, not just the person that I have become.  Growing old is almost like a deadly disease...it is slow in coming on, but it is relentless.  It robs you of your essence and leaves you trapped in a body that you scaresley recognize.  When I die, I want my life to be a celebration of who I was.  I know I have left enough funny stories behind that my eulogy will bring a few laughs.  I hope I have at least another 25 years here on this earth...I would love to hold my great grandchild someday.  So I will continue to box up my life.  I will try to leave little messages for my kids, so they will know about all the pictures and keepsakes and why I kept them.  Every person is different and my kids certainly are that.  I am very sentimental and nostalgic.  I find it very very hard to part with things.  Rich even found the key to our very first cabin on our very first cruise...it meant so much to us....I just could not get rid of it.  I know they will keep some of my things, but I know that can't keep everything.  To get rid of this stuff, would be like erasing my life.  I am not ready to do that yet.  I'm posting a few pictures, some are not real flattering, where others are.  I have always laughed at myself and I realize that every stage of my life brought me to where I am today.  I am just thankful that I still have hair after all those perms and highlights.  Rich unfortunately, didn't hold on to his hair, but he still looks sexy.  Looking back at our life...I barely remember my life before Rich, we were 17 yrs. old when we started dating.  He has been my life and I am so proud to box up my life with his.

I honestly do NOT know how I ever got Rich to wear white pants...We couldn't remember where we were even going.  We just laughed our butts off over this one.   Every one has their time...I have had mine, but my future still holds many more memories that I will continue to box up....