*somewhere in Ireland, 1995
The luxury of Saturday morning musings. Starting our next run of listings this month, so reveling in some time off (sort of, if you don’t count 8 hours in our tin roof shed each day!).
So this getting older thing. It’s wild! You transition into being ‘a watcher’, looking down on your life from above. Really taking everything into perspective. Throwing away everything that isn’t important, shelving regrets (not staying in my au pair job in London in 1990, permanently deleting the beautiful photo of me and my eldest on a joyful day in the snow when my 15 year and still going strong blog troll told me I was ugly, old and haggard … I wasn’t, I now know that … anyway I digress), holding tight to the things/people you love, being grateful for the privilege of waking up every day, giving thanks for being able to work hard …. and for being given the work 🙌
My mum dug out some old photos (and all the little stories and poems I used to write 😆) and gave them to me last weekend.
It has been interesting sharing them with my youngest (who is here with us until November, when he heads to Japan for 6 months or so … not coping 🥲… I digress again!) …
Consider this. Your children have never met your younger self. Seeing you in photos in your youth, they are meeting/seeing that version of you for the very first time. Fresh eyes on a once very young face. So when I showed my youngest son a series of photos of me around 30 years ago he sat there saying, “you look like Gran here”, “ oh I can see cousin Iz in this one, and cousin A here”. He couldn’t see me! He could see all the people I love most in the world. The old parts of me in Gran (sorry Gran, you are still young) and the young parts of me in his beautiful cousins. And they are beautiful ❤️
I’m part of bigger story. Bigger than me. It makes you feel so connected to your people, the family you were born into, who are travelling this journey with you. And to your ancestors who ensured that you got here! United by genes and history and love ❤️
Anyway, happy Saturday. I’m heading to the beach. Celebrating Luke’s birthday this week 🎉