2023. The summer Dad left for weeks at a time for work and we would stay up till the light slipped through the blinds reading stories…”
Him, holding my bike seat. Me peddling hard… I remember shouting to him over and over through the wind, “Don’t let go Dad!” him responding back “I wont! I won’t let you go!”
“Dad! Don’t let go!”
No response…
I look back frantic. He’s so far back my neck cranes looking for him…and I crash. He races to my side to dust me off and congratulate me, and instead I’m heartbroken… I’m mad. “You let go! You promised not to let me go!”
Undeterred, he holds the bike up, waiting for me to hop back on.
We visit Grandpa’s headstone together and I tell you this and other memories of him.
Like the time we jumped so high on the trampoline we ripped right through it. Water-gun fights on prickly grass, long car rides and country music in the pickup. That one time we found a perfect arrowhead…
It turns out all of my strongest memories of my Dad, your Grandpa, are of super simple moments.
And I know it’s hard to fathom my loves, but one day, the simple moments that are happening now, will be the ones you remember most too…
It’s why I love and feel this ever compulsive need to photograph the simple stuff, the silly stuff, the messy stuff, the hard stuff, the “happens everyday and who cares” stuff… because I do. I care, and one day I know you will too.
One day like Grandpa, we’ll have to let people we love go… but look to the simple moments my little ones. The gentle hum and flow of your day to day... Love was and can always be found there.
Welcome to the ‘Season of Motherhood’, a series in our @artifactmotherhood loop & blog circle. We are a group of artists and mothers from around the world sharing stories of our journeys of motherhood with words and images we want to leave as artifacts for our children and the generations to come. Please view the other following artists taking part this month starting with Leila Balin.