The Benefit of Snapshots

This has been a pretty craptastical week.  In the grand scale I know my world is quite perfect - but it has been difficult to remember that little truth over these past few days.  In an effort to stamp out this pity party that is threatening to make me run to the super market and (re)stock my freezer with Haagen-Dazs Coffee Ice Cream, I did what I do when I need a swift kick of perspective.  I opened my photo album. 

Random.  Any picture will do.

Tonight iPhoto opened to pictures of a rose and double tulip.  They were purchased this December at the Whole Foods in Chicago and transported to Michigan for Christmas with Mom and Dad, Aunt Suzy and Nana and Grandpa.

The flowers alone are quite lovely - slips of pink and white in the middle of the winter.  But, tonight they represent a little moment of happiness that I can pull myself back to.  A reminder that Nana blushed a little bit when I told her she looked beautiful in her Christmas sweater and ribboned french braid.  That Grandpa moved my gift of potted bulbs until his good little vision spot could see what types were nestled in the dirt.  A reminder that the next day Aunt Suzy traveled to see her daughter, and we went West to see my brother.  An extended family not quite together on Christmas, but the core units all touching base.  

So, yes - the last four days have been challenging.  But this too, as Dad says, shall pass.  These days will not be photographed.  They will not be posted on my refrigerator, placed behind glass frames, or added to the ridiculous amount of pictures that I store digitally.  These days will pass and I will not be able to pull up a captured moment to remind me of the hurt and disappointment that I feel right now.

Instead, just like tonight, I will be able to find another image, another snapshot, that reminds me of family, friendship, and so much joy.  Technicolor inches of frozen joy.