Women - get in the picture. Please.
May 9, 2020
I just fell down a serious rabbit-hole on Facebook…
We’ve all been there. It happens. But this feels bigger than just a FB scroll-hole experience to me…
FB showed me my ‘memories’ - a photo taken on this day 7 years ago. It’s a selfie taken with my husband Mark and our then 4mo baby boy, Aiden. Our first baby. Back when it felt like WE were babies. And then it offered me to ‘see more memories’.. and boy, did I bite…
I sat. I scrolled. I oohed. I ahhh-ed. I remembered. And loved, and laughed and - as cheesy and gross as it sounds - I even shed a tear.
My favourite pictures were the ones where I was in a HUGE state of growth and change - when both my babies were still growing inside me, and I had NO IDEA what lay ahead…! I can remember the place they were taken - just selfies on my phone - and what I was feeling, and thinking, and hoping, and fearing… I remember how big I thought I was, and I look now with nothing but awe and appreciation for my body which grew 2 healthy, strong, living babies…
My point is - women, GET IN THE PICTURE. You’ve probably heard me say this a couple of times before, I’m kind of annoying like that. But truly, your favourite pictures are THE ONES YOU TAKE. Not the perfect ones, not the styled ones, not the overly-posed-everything-is-so-perfect-in-our-lives-right-now ones. They’re the messy, real, raw ones that - years from now, when they’re served up as your ‘memories’ - you’ll tear-up looking at them. Because they take you back to a time you want to re-visit. At the time the picture is going to be taken - you’ll need to be strong, your first impulse will be to say NO - my hair isn’t right, I don’t have makeup on, I’m still carrying that extra 4 kilos since blah-blah, etc etc…
This Sunday is Mother’s Day. Some of the social restrictions we’ve made into our new normal these last 6 weeks have finally been eased. You have the opportunity to see people you love this weekend. GET IN THE PICTURE. Go nuts. Take loads of photos, don’t delete any of them. Keep them. Treasure them. Re-visit them.
I promise, there’s a future you who will thank you for it.
What I wouldn’t give for another day with my Grandmother. You best believe I would move heaven and earth for a picture of me and her together where we looked happy, like we were just having fun, being together.
“One day, all your children will have is pictures of you. Make sure you’re in them. It doesn’t matter what your hair looks like, your makeup or your body. They won’t care about any of that. They’ll just want to see you”
For all of you celebrating this Sunday - Happy Mother’s Day. Eat the cake. Drink the wine. Take lots of photos. Enjoy it all xx
With love and light,
Fiona xxx
