Heritage

By:Michelle Franden

Creative. Fun. Therapeutic. All words I can use to describe the pleasure I get from scrapbooking. Yet, there is much more to this craft than I first thought. I first began to scrap because I wanted to get organized. I wanted to show off my family pictures in a fun and unique way. I began to enjoy the praise from family and friends as they looked through my pages. My scrapbooks may not have seemed like great works of art to some, but they were just that to me. The person who believed she couldn't draw stick people right, was now crafting beautiful layouts. I finally felt something I had always wanted to feel....creative! And along with the feeling of doing something special, I soon realized I was doing something very important.

We all think that we will never forget that special day or that certain someone. And many of us have comforted ourselves with the belief that as long as we have those pictures stuffed in some old shoebox we will somehow keep the past alive. But we often fail to realize that without leaving an understandable record, our history will become meaningless to future generations.

Photographs can be cherished treasures. They capture a moment in time. They give us a glimpse of someone's personality. They preserve a memory, a part of us that we wish to share. It is the preservation of these memories that will enable our future generations to know who we are. This is the heritage we leave to those who will come after us....documenting the facts and the emotions that surround our lives.

I am so thankful that I can capture a part of today, for my loved ones of tomorrow. My children's children will never have to wonder what Grandma looked like or wonder what games Mommy enjoyed playing as a child. I am giving something to my future when I work on my scrapbooks. And I am giving something to myself as well.

Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: The Story of a Scrapbooker, by Jessica G.