Thursday, December 8, 2011

Bear Mountain


My daughter is gathering childhood photos of herself for a senior yearbook project. This was last night's exchange on finding this picture, taken at Bear Mountain on a fall foliage trip we did one October. The kids were five and eight.

Mom, did you really dress us alike? Really?
No, you both got up and dressed yourselves, and that's what you put on that day.
The same jean jacket? The same black pants and tee-shirt?
As I recall, your brother got dressed first.
You're sure you didn't do this?
I did not. So who do you think was copying whom?
Must have been a coincidence.

The four of us did nothing that day but walk around the lake and ride the carousel at the lodge and take pictures that punctuated our running stream of chatter. We lounged on rocks and skipped pebbles on the water and climbed over fences and walked and talked some more. It was, as I recall, a perfect day.

But I wonder, do perfect days really exist, or does memory filter them so that we can pick them out of the pile of days and shine them up to a perfect sparkle? And does it matter? The memory is what remains. I'm glad we took pictures, little frames of light and color captured from that day, the sweet fleeting moments of this life made tangible.

12 comments:

  1. They are so cute! I hope perfect days were as perfect as remembered.

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  2. All I can say is- if that's not one of the most beautiful pictures of some of the most beautiful children I've ever seen then I don't know what would be.

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  3. "Do perfect days really exist ... ?" I think they do, but we rarely recognize them as such while we are living them. Memory is the gift that revisits them and reveals what we missed while we were "lost in the forest."

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  4. I just love this photo. Every time that I see your kids when they were small, I keep thinking that I'm some how raising your kids again. Does that make sense? It does to me. And then when I see them all grown up, at least I know what my two will look like. Perhaps when you daughter goes off to school, I'll send John and Claire up there for you to do your "magic" and turn them out right. But send them back when they start making money, okay?
    m.

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  5. There is such sweetness here -- it exudes out in a clear way, not cloying. Your children's eyes are always what get to me -- wise and old and young and sweet and innocent, all at once.

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  6. I love how many pictures you have of your kids. I am so inspired by you!

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  7. Guilty - as the younger sister of my only brother - I am completely guilty of this. Baggy shorts and polos and white athletic socks pulled up to my calves.

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  8. This is such a wonderful picture! A great addition to what sounds like an ideal day.

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  9. Any time you feel compelled to grab the camera and snap a picture, you are putting a bookmark in that memory filter. That is a good thing!

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  10. If it's perfect in your memory, that's what counts!

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  11. This is just so wonderfully, perfectly, beautifully, sweet. I can feel the love they have for each other.

    My girl used to want to wear whatever her older brother was wearing, right down to boys under.we.ar., so I let her. No harm done!

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  12. OHHH!! I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this post!! Their faces are absolutely priceless! And the great memories for you. And the discussion about their clothing! Haaa! Cracked me up!!
    Thanks for the laughs!! :-D
    Sending love ~

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