Snapshots
Snapshots are not taken on unforgettable events. The birth of a child, for instance, is not a snapshot. Finding and losing love is not a snapshot either. These memories make for a whole movie, with sounds and smells added, along with technicolor provided by a myriad of emotions.
Snapshots are images I keep from moments when I find myself at peace. Snapshots are taken when I find myself at the place I ought to be. It is like an article or a picture cut from a newspaper or a slice from a cake. A single slice is not the whole cake. When I open my box of snapshots, they always come without any order. Let's see what I can find right now.
1) There is one I took when I went up to the top of Mont Blanc in a cable car. In a few minutes, you rise from 800 meters to more than 4000. There was a sea of white peaks all around and they glowed with a pinkish and golden hue in the late afternoon sun.
2) My second son took a long time to walk. When he finally did, he was so delighted to be able to move by his own means that he would laugh every step he took. I had never seen anyone look so happy
3) That is an old one. It was sunny, after months of cloudy weather and drizzle. I was wandering around the streets of London, holding a diet coke, wearing a new pair of jeans and my favorite shirt.
4) I see my daughter squeaking with delight at the rabbits that greeted us one morning when we left our room in Dixie Landings. I remember the roses and the gazebo, and the river on the back. It was sunny and perfect.
5) My first rollercoaster ride. I was scared at first and squeezed hard the arm of a friend. Then each turn brought a mixture of fright and delight. I felt alive.
My first rollercoaster ride was certainly not like that. It is interesting how life also twists and turns, and sometimes even leaves you upside down. 
6) Early morning, not a soul at the Boardwalk. The sun shone. The colors were sharp. Same trip: a golden afternoon walking by the water at Portofino Bay Resort.It all looked like a real life technicolor movie.
Portofino Bay
7) Winter in Danmark. I was walking on the fields with friends. We played with the snow, slid downhill, and giggled.
8) Here I am pushing the cart with my firstborn, by the beach. The sea was amazingly blue. The sun was going down and looked like a red ball, and I didn't have a care in the world.
9) A cold, foggy night in Toledo, Spain. The streets were twisted and narrow. There was nothing to remind you of the 20th century. I saw a policeman around the bend. He was dressed in a cloak and spotted a old fashioned hat. For a moment, it looked like a character from a movie. I stood there as if, by magic, I had been sent to another era.
10) A sunny afternoon. I was walking around the World Showcase with a friend, sipping a multicolored margarita and chatting. Life was not a complicated affair.
1 Comments:
Portofino Bay looks wonderful.
Sadly, I do not take snapshots. This is because I am horrible with the camera. Things go out of focus, or they just plain don't turn out the way they're supposed to.
But I understand fully what you mean when you say that snapshots are not taken on unforgettable events, that they are not the whole cake.
A snapshot is like peeking through a hole to see a picture, isn't it? You can see a little of it, but not its entirety.
Like a snapshot of a girl smiling. One would not know, by looking at the snapshot, what the girl is smiling about, and what goes on around her while the shot was taken.
Or something to that effect.
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