Mental Photographs

I love to take photos of everything I do in life. My camera is something I like to keep with me at all times as if it was another appendage. But what about those moments in life where you can’t have a camera? Or your husband highly suggests you to put it away so you don’t carelessly loose it while speeding down the mountain on an alpine slide? Well, these moments require a mental photograph. I am so very bad at these but in reality, mental photographs force me to live life in its fullest reality, rather than behind the lens. If I just snap a photo, I feel like I just took my memory and I can review it later rather than enjoy it right then. When the camera goes away I force myself to remember the moments right as they happen…

While in Colorado on Sunday….

I remember climbing into the alpine slide with Lauren sitting beside me, about to race me down the hill. I remember being the only person wearing a skirt that day, with my husband’s jacket wrapped around my legs so I wouldn’t inadvertently flash anyone while going down the slide. I remember, right after take off, Lauren screaming that there’s a chipmunk on her slide, twice. I remember the tall wildflowers leaning onto the track creating a wall of greenery surrounding us. I remember getting off the slide as it started to gently sprinkle. Then I remember finding out the gondolas were closed due to the impending storm and lightning. I remember hearing we only had to wait 3 minutes for the bus to come. I remember hearing the thunder right above us. I remember seeing the lightning reflecting off my friends’ faces. And I remember Kellen saving my camera in his backpack as the rain started to pour. I remember hiding my face against Andy’s chest as the storm poured down around us, as Debbie ran out into the rain, arms open wide, yelling how wonderful it all was. I remember that bus being more than 3 minutes. I remember the driver not being able to see out the front windows, just pure white from the fog. And I remember taking my flip flops off to run to the car, feeling the soaked asphalt and rain slapping down around me.

But of course after all these mental photographs, the real camera gets to come back out again, giving one solid hard copy of a memory, the result from running through the storm: