I haven’t been posting too much this week … as if I wouldn’t have normally been in a reflective mood at this time of year, my older sister’s passing has kicked the inner thoughts into overdrive. Actually, even before her passing I was already spending a lot of time working on the family photo project and that kept me in a state of being connected to the past. And before that I was pulling together material from my blog for a possible iBook version. I was surprised to discover that I’ve been reflecting on my journey through life in these posts for over ten-years and I have journals that go all the way back to the early 80s. Yikes. Then some time last week I remembered that I had gathered up these family photos quite a while ago and spent over two-hours interviewing my dad on camera about the stories associated with the images. As with most things I was hoping for some follow-up session because I don’t know how much actual information he had to share about the specific pictures, but that never happened. But I do have those hours of footage of him talking on camera and mom chiming in off camera (for whatever reason she decided that she didn’t want to be on camera but couldn’t contain herself when dad said something that she didn’t quite agree with…). It’s quite priceless. So, in addition to adding more images from the 80s onward, centered on the next generation, I’ll be going through the interview footage with dad and see how I might use the clips to add to the photo collection. I’m also hopeful that I’ll get a chance to talk to the surviving siblings when I come out to California and have them comment on images in the collection and add their voices to the project. Anyway, It almost took my breath away when I put the old DV cam tapes in and started to roll the playback and there was dad on the couch in Carlsbad talking away about his sisters and serving in Korea and whatever… I can’t remember at the moment. I’m glad that we got the chance to talk and I took the time to get it on tape. It is about the journey and those whom we are fortunate enough to travel the path with and keeping their memories and loves alive in our lives for the few days that we have and then passing it on to those who will follow behind us.