I don’t know why, but walking on the street last week, I started thinking about this movie, “One Hour Photo”, with Robin Williams, and that made me think about my today’s subject. His character, as a voice-over, is saying this:
“Family photos depict smiling faces… births, weddings, holidays, children’s birthday parties. People take pictures of the happy moments in their lives. Someone looking through our photo album would conclude that we had led a joyous, leisurely existence free of tragedy. No one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget.”
We all know that life is not always easy. My blog post today is for the less happy days, those in which one has the moral at ground zero, the days for which we don’t take photo because it is ugly. I want to talk about my “feel good” box. Almost 8 years ago, I started to put in a box greeting cards containing beautiful messages of love that my beloved gave me for my birthday or Christmas, to write on a piece of my best realisation that make me feel proud of myself, and comments on my work as a photographer that particularly touched me. Even the thank you cards I received for the help provided to some people. I have a box full of love words that remind me how fantastic I am (or at least that some people on Earth think I am); a box that I can get out of the closet when I need a little fix.
I started my box with stuff I had on hand when I was into a very difficult time. We don’t think to create this kind of tool when everything is fine. However, it’s important to continue to contribute to it in the happy days. When needed, we don’t want the only words of love that we have on hand have been received 10 years ago. We need to see that we were loved before and still are, to know that other people were proud of us and so they are now.
So why not start your own this weekend? Find a pretty box. Pick greeting cards that contain custom words and put them in it. Then, take time to reflect on the things you have done and that make you proud, then write them in detail on a sheet and add it too.
Once your box is started, consider writing a note to people you love so that they also have something on hand to start their own.
I leave you on this … I’ll do some reading. Not because I need it … but because it feels good sometimes to remember what we already know
