At the end of the day all we have are memories

CTMH Convention in Dallas 2012

I recently returned from the Close To My Heart convention in Dallas, TX.  It was one of the best experiences I have ever had.  At first I was hesitant about attending because I have not built my business as I would have liked and we just relocated to a new state and are about to relocate again AND, AND, AND.....

As a mom, it seems like we all have reasons for not doing things that can benefit us.  We always have something else to do or someone more important than ourselves to attend to.  Well I have been living this way fro years, since the birht of my first child almost 14 years ago, but a moment came last week that changed me.

We were fortunate enough to hear from Stacy Julian, a scrapbooking industry visionary and a true motivator.  She made several points that just hit right home for me.  She told me that it was okay to not be caught up on my scrapbooking, to let go of the guilt that surrounds that black hole of the scrapbooking abyss.  She told me to take time to care for myself, something so simple, yet so easily neglected.

One of the most important phrases that I have ingrained in my memory and have thought of each day since I heard it, "At the end of the day all we have are memories."  Of course this is just a simple phrase and such a duh sentiment but it just struck a chord with me.  In fact, I plan to have this phrase turned into a vinyl expression for my wall so that we will never forget this simple mantra.

The reason that this is so dear to me is because, as many of you know, I lost my mother almost two years ago.  There will be no new memories made until we meet again one day.  I reflect on the little things that my mother and I did together as a child.  I refelct on the good, the bad, and the ugly, but mostly I reflect on the sound of her voice.  I do not have any old messages or videos that I can find with her voice and I desperately worry that I will one day forget her voice.  I wish those recordable storybooks would have been more readily available before she left us but I cannot live in the woulda, shoulda, coulda world.

I get so caught up in the daily humdrum and the constant connection to an electronic device that we forget to take time to reflect on the days events.  We take pictures, we record facts and details, and we tuck them away so we can preserve the memories for future generations.  It is in these moments that we think we are preserving them that we sometimes forget to experience the moment.  So while yes it is important to record the events and people in our lives for future generations to experience our lives, we must not forget to live in the moment of the day.  After all, at the end of the day all we have are memories.