Save Your Photos Month

Seeing September 1st as a type of "New Year", I was going through some notes I wrote last year. First to see how far I've come and second to review my goals and vision.

In my notes, I saw Phyllis Smith's name. While speaking with Brenda Jasmin who was teaching Positivi-Tea courses I was attending, she told me that her sister-in-law had a similar interest to mine. 

I googled her and the timing couldn't have been better. Her company is Memories In Focus and she posted two days ago:  "It's Save Your Photos Month!" Click the link to read her post.

Save Your Photos Month is a service offered by The Photo Managers. They offer free courses to help people preserve their photos, videos and documents. I have signed up for a few courses that interest me. If you're interested in seeing what is offered, click here to sign up.

Memories in Focus offer various services to organize and preserve photos. They are offering a free introduction to the Picture My Life Workshop on September 8th. It was originally scheduled for August 25th but lucky for me, it was pushed back. It seems like it was meant to be. Check out Memories in Focus' Facebook Page if you're interested.

As part of my September New Year, my plan was to elaborate in my last two posts:

Memories Bliss Point and They Are More Beautiful If There Are Few.

Although I can fairly easily find any photo that I want to find, my photo library is still quite overwhelming to look at. A few days ago, I was speaking with my husband about our photo collections and what would happen to them once we were gone. Past generations had a box of photos or an album to hand down to their children. Will our children bother looking on our computers for photos? What will they do when they have 100,000 photos to sift through?

My plan for September was to start a new collection of photos I didn't want lost amid the clutter. How perfect to now have more motivation by finding Memories in Focus and Save Your Photos Month for inspiration.

It's the Moments That Take Your Breath Away

A friend of mine asked me a great question a few months ago while we were talking about my Revive55 Project. Could we spend too much time preserving instead of enjoying?

I think the shell quote in my recent post sums it up perfectly for me. 

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. " Anne Morrow Lindbergh

It's not every moment that matters...and as I write that, I am reminded of another quote that another friend has on display:

"Remember life is not the amount of breaths you take. It’s the moments that take your breath away." from the film Hitch starring Will Smith

Could we spend too much time preserving and documenting instead of enjoying new moments? I think that this is part of the Memories Bliss Point from my previous post. Do we enjoy preserving and documenting?  We re-experience those moments when we look at, preserve, tag, organize, or scrapbook our photos. In this way, we are still enjoying past memories in the present. We can even enjoy new moments by sharing and telling our stories with others.

If we enjoy making photo albums, it's time well-spent, but if it's a chore, perhaps it's an activity not worth doing. There may be a better way for you to preserve your memories. We can create new memories by returning to places we've been or re-experiencing moments we have loved in the past.

My friend has a good point. If we spend too much time in the past, we miss present moments. We also don't plan future experiences that may be even better than past ones. 

It's a balancing act between the past, the present and the future. This is my take-away from my Revive55 Project. I don't want to spend all my time preserving all my memories. They are more precious if they are few. Recognizing our happiest past memories helps us to see the memories that we will enjoy in the future.

Chase your dreams when you will enjoy the moments worth capturing and preserving.