Hidden Treasures - How Sharing Can Come Back

About a year ago, it was a very hectic time in my life... I was just married and recovering from the stress of planning it in such a short time, and my new husband was trying to get moved into the house. I was hormonal, nausiated, dealing with heartburn... you get the picture. Well, at least I had my pictures. Even then, Ioved taking pictures. Little did I know that I wouldn't have my photos forever...
The wonders of our digital world has given us so many advantages - we get to see our pics instantly, we can edit them, we can even print them out ourselves. Computers (fortunately or unfortunately) are often a very important part of digital pictures. I didn't even realize how important my computer was until it crashed!
I lost virtually everything that was on it. At first I thought I'd just get some of my snapshots from websites I'd uploaded them onto. The quality was definately too low resolution to print out. Even 4 x 6 prints were quite blurry. I had just a few of my most important saved on a flash drive, and I had several printed out from years past...but so many of my recent memories were 'gone.' Oh, why hadn't I been better about printing out all my wonderful pictures?!

Just today I came across some CDs out at my parents' house. They don't snap a whole lot of pictures, so I'm very careful to back up all their photos. The CDs were all the pictures that I had backed up for them, as well as a few pictures I had taken & copied for them! There were pics of the triplets back in 2005, pics of Laura & Michael, graduations, birthdays, weddings...and my Mom's flowers.
I spent a whole summer getting beautiful pictures of the flowers guarded by my mother's green thumb - they were some of my most prized & precious pictures. I cried several times over the last year when I thought about losing them all. When I look back now, I know my tears weren't because I'd worked so hard to get those pictures. It actually felt like I had lost a part of my Mom. I look at those flowers and I think of my Mom. Even though I don't even know the names of some of the flowers I know my Mom does.
I realize there may come a day when I won't have my Mom here on this earth with me...we're all human & none of us are guaranteed a tomorrow. Only by God's grace are we granted a tomorrow. But when I think about not having my Mom with me forever, it just makes me want to cry. What would I do if I didn't know the answer to a really tough question from Livia... a recipe ingredient...the name of a flower?
I suppose all we can do is cherish every moment that we have on this earth. Be glad for every talk or visit with our parents. Most importantly, keep God in our minds, hearts, & prayers. I must remember that He has a reason for everything and for everything He has a reason. I like to think that God's reason for me finding these lost treasures is to be more thankful.

From now on, I'll be sure to offer to share my pictures with others involved in the fun - there may come a day that I'll be begging to 'borrow' them back!