I remember the days of long ago;
    I meditate on all your works
    and consider what your hands have done. – Psalm 143:5

So Friday afternoon I hit a mother-lode of old photos. Mostly I just stuffed them in a box labelled, “to deal with later.” But I took a moment to look through one envelope – just one – and this is what I saw.

Good grief. How am I possibly supposed to get anything done when our children, who are now 39 and 42, are looking back at me with their elementary school faces, tugging on my heartstrings like this?

I also have a pile of stuff from my parents’ home, pictures and artifacts I didn’t have the time or the inclination to go through last fall after my mother died; but now it is all front and center with no option but to take a little pause.

Rebekah and I are doing out best to compress it all into manageable amounts so we don’t drag a boatload of stuff we will never need from one place to another. But it is tough sometimes to make the call so we get bogged down.

I will share a handful from that one envelope here, just in case a few of these throwback photographs resonate.

Yes, we look ridiculously young. No, we have no idea where the time went. Yes we have been blessed beyond measure with such a beautiful family.

In order of appearance in the gallery (below) it goes like this:

• First, an ID photo from 1974. I’m 18 and it’s my first passport photo (after having a haircut!).
• The next few images are all from around 1992 (the first – with all four of us – is likely earlier). We have my dog, Mozart, so that helps date a couple of them.
• Then the last four are in Brandon circa 1997. Scratch the cat, Mozart the Bichon Frisé, Darth the panther/cat, Rebekah with Darth.

These all made me smile. I hope they make you smile too. I think it’s fair to say that we could all use some extra smiles right about now!

Peace, and joy – DEREK