What’s on your refrigerator doors?
Mine is covered with photographs and the obligatory magnets to hold them all in place. It’s a hodgepodge of themes. An Andy Griffith Show magnet. A Chicago skyline magnet securing a winter photo of my Uncle Ev’s farm in Iowa. The profiles of Evelyn and Josie, two girls from South America I sponsor through Compassion International. And there are advertising magnets with crucial phone numbers like Ben Franklin Plumbing and Hungry Howie’s Pizza. The best photos on our fridge are of my kids. There are lots of those.
Six years ago this morning, October 18th, Annie and Emma were born. Seven and a half weeks early at 3 pounds 9 ounces and 3 pounds 14 ounces, respectively. After a month or so in the NICU in Spokane, they came home. I asked my dear friends Linda and Lisa to pick us up at the airport.
Once through the front door, Linda took Annie and Lisa took Emma. They sat down on the love seat and held the babies while I set about unpacking. Before they left, I took a picture of the four of them. After the film got developed it got put on the fridge. A year later at the girls’ first birthday party, I took another picture. It’s been a tradition ever since.
After this week there will be seven pictures of them sitting on the love seat, Linda holding Annie and Lisa holding Emma. When you see the pictures grouped together in sequence on the fridge it’s a striking reminder of how quickly time passes. And it makes me thankful that we stumbled on a simple way to mark the most significant life event for our family that we celebrate every year.
What’s on your refrigerator doors? Hopefully some great snapshots of the people important to you. Pictures that make you laugh and smile and remember. Pictures that take you back to a different time and place; images that remind you who you are and where you come from.
When we’re purposeful in capturing our Kodak moments, we’re marking time and making memories. Marking time keeps us honest about our mortality and tempers our tendency to take life for granted. Making memories builds a legacy for us and our children.
Yesterday Annie and Emma were standing in front of our fridge looking at all the pictures. It was a conversation between twin sisters, a delightful privilege for me to overhear. They were discussing a photo of themselves taken a couple years ago at their pre-school graduation. Dressed in their blue mortarboards and tassels, they are striking a classic pose with two of their friends. After reliving the memory together, Annie sighed and said longingly, “I miss those days.”
I miss them, too. But the best I can do is make memories at every stage.
And take more pictures to put on the fridge.
“Memories are times that we borrow, to spend when we get to tomorrow.” – Paul Anka
Todd A. Thompson – October 18, 2006
