These are days

I've been going through ten years worth of photos for the past few days. Ten years. Yeah, it's just as long a time as it sounds.

The reason for the navel-gazing is Jo's impending tenth birthday celebration. Dear friend J. and her intrepid husband have graciously been piecing together a visual montage of my little girl's life for me, complete with the songs that remind me most of the roughly 3,600 days we've been blessed with thus far. I'm combing our hard drive, selecting the best of the past five year's worth of digital images. The first five years of Jo's life are, unfortunately, preserved only in memory and a mish-mosh of fuzzy, posed and often ill-lit photographs. I'm selectively scanning these, trying my best to glean enough photos to represent ages birth through five.

My favorites images are the ones that catch my beautiful daughter in the midst of her happy little life. Jo sucking her toes. Jo caught wearing her ruby slippers, her rain hat and a purple leotard. Jo kissing baby Logan. Jo grinning like a monkey in her car seat. Jo bursting from behind the door of a plastic playhouse.

Simple moments. Things that flashed before my eyes and were gone. Oh, I hope I appreciate it all. I think I do. But then I look back on these images and wonder ... have I really been wide awake the whole time? The blur of daily activity sometimes lulls us into drifting through our children's lives--and our own. Projects like this force me to examine where we've been and ponder where we're going, and somehow make me more attune to each moment that I have with my children. After all, this is it. Just like shooting photos with actual film (a novelty to my children): you either got it, or you didn't. No popping up conveniently on a viewfinder.

These are the days
These are days you’ll remember
Never before and never since, I promise
Will the whole world be warm as this
And as you feel it,
You’ll know it’s true
That you are blessed and lucky
It’s true that you
Are touched by something
That will grow and bloom in you

These are days that you’ll remember
When May is rushing over you
With desire to be part of the miracles
You see in every hour
You’ll know it’s true
That you are blessed and lucky
It’s true that you are touched
By something that will grow and bloom in you

These are days
These are the days you might fill
With laughter until you break
These days you might feel
A shaft of light
Make its way across your face
And when you do
Then you’ll know how it was meant to be
See the signs and know their meaning
It's true
Then you’ll know how it was meant to be
Hear the signs and know they’re speaking
To you, to you