Watching my photos....

Somehow, I don't remember how, I got my computer to give a slide show of the photos I have stored on it when it goes to sleep.

Sometimes I just sit and watch them scroll by.

They are all at least 8 years old because the only grandchildren in them are Emma and Morgan as babies and they're now 9 1/2.

Some of the photos are in Josh and Cathy's apartment in Brooklyn, where they haven't lived for 6 or 7 years. Most of the photos are in and around the house we've lived in for over 25 years. Some, very artful, are taken on Block Island, where we used to go for vacation.

At least 3 cats and 3 dogs are in them. Catherine and Luke and 'big Fatty'--our worst cat ever--who had a name once but became 'big Fatty' and, late in his life, 'big F***'. Really. An awful cat. There is dear Sadie dog and Bela as a puppy and Cathy and Josh's now dead dog, Sumi. Great dogs all.


The only people in the photos are Bern and me and Josh and Cathy and Mimi (no Tim, a little before he was always around) and Morgan and Emma as babies. There are photos of Bern and Mimi and me holding the babies, with them happy or unhappy or asleep. There are photos of the remarkable views from Block Island and of Sadie and Bern and I in that magical place.

There are photos of Josh and Mimi and Cathy and Bern together. And of me with Josh and of everyone with a dog or cat or two.

There's one shot that brings tears of joy to my eyes of Bern working in our yard, raking leaves. She is so lovely in that photo it makes me week.

There are photos of the 5 of us in NYC, on the street and in a restaurant, Mimi pulling up her sweater to cover her mouth, Josh and Cathy looking weird, everyone but me on the street--this must have been the day Josh was accepted to the bar in NY--all those.

And photos of a wondrous white flower on our back deck that I cannot name and will never forget.

Did I say about Bern and Mimi and Josh and Cathy and me with those babies? I think I did.

And the one with Josh and me on the deck, laughing. And Bern asleep in our bed with Luke and Sadie asleep with her? And me holding Bela (who now weighs 50 pounds) in one hand in our back yard when he first came to live with us? And those babies--now 9, going on 10.

I've left some out--like one I didn't take of Mimi waving to the camera and pointing to Sydney, Australia in the distance when she was there.

I sit and watch them scroll through--memories from almost a decade ago that are a part of me each day as I watch them.

Lovely, they are. Some bring me near tears of joy. What a wonder to see (and relive) a Life long past and to know it again.

How blessed I am by my photos.

Did I mention the one with Luke in my suitcase, waiting to go somewhere? I printed it out for Bern after Luke died. Luke has 'moved on', just as he was waiting to do in that photo.

I watch them over and again. They give me great joy and great thankfulness for the life I have had and the life I have.

Blessed, that's me....