What is your favorite memory of childhood? It turns out, your memory may not have actually happened! Well, not exactly the way you remember it.
Inspired by my most recent podcast, Photographing Life with D'anina Photography, we talked about the power of pictures and videos. D'anina seeks to capture the emotion and feelings of the moment with her photography.
Memories fade despite how clearly we see the present. My baby's bright blue eyes aren't as blue in my mind until I look back at her baby pictures. Subsequently, the joy and awe comes flooding right back. That indescribable feeling only photography and video can attempt to capture through a sliver of time.
Interestingly, it seems we have some power to alter our memories through continually looking at pictures, videos, or sharing stories of the moment. Neurologist and famous author, Oliver Sacks, states when particularly young, we remember the emotion that was felt as well as the repetition in which it was told. Sacks points out even some of our early core memories may not have even happened. They perhaps come from stories told to us passed down by other’s recollections.
One of the first things I remember as a child was my parent's creek and ice-skating with my dad. He spun me around on the frozen water and my younger brother watched us from the window refusing to go out in the cold. I was wearing a purple coat and a pink hat. However, thinking more about it, the memory is from watching this on home video. Not actually of the moment itself. I also recall dad talked to me about our ice skating adventures and drew little ice skating sketches from time to time. These were in fact my dad's memories. But mine? Actually lacing up my skates and being out there? I do not remember.
Contemplating more about this, how can I help my kids recall details of their childhoods? Such as picking dandelions or remembering how proud I am they were nice to someone on the first day of school?
With this in mind, I share home videos and photo albums frequently. We talk about happy times, vacations, and camps. It also opens the door for more genuine conversations. Cornell clinical professor of psychology, Dr Kenneth Barish, points out children are captivated by our stories. Like a sponge their brains soak it all in.
I forget my kids have not experienced many of my memories. Or they were too young to remember what happened at their third birthday party. These photos and videos reveal a world of colorful fireworks in the night sky, a spooky hike in the woods, or twinkling holiday lights. Like the one with a sparkle in my toddler's eyes on a holiday train. All the mom feels!
Life really is beautiful.
Thanks for taking the time to read! If you have been enjoying my podcasts and blog posts, I would love if you subscribe to my newsletter to join our mission: To support, encourage, and empower each other as imperfect moms to love as a verb.
Check out my podcast episode with D'anina here:
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