My older daughter sent us a digital photo frame to which family members can upload photos so that they will appear like magic on the scrolling screen in our living room. I set it up, added the app, and invited all the kids to upload their pictures, expecting the fun surprises of noticing the new ones each week or so.
“Wait,” one son interjected. “Let me make sure I understand. So we can add photos that will just show up in your living room when anyone may be visiting?”
I warned him not to get any bright ideas and to keep it clean. Imagine my amused horror when a daughter zoomed in on a family photo where she’d been standing with her thumbs in her belt loops but actually shooting a bird. And someone added a picture of some stranger in a jon boat holding his arms out to show off a fish, but the fish is photoshopped into the photo several inches from his hands. They also add their favorites through the years, right back to all the times that made us laugh so hard our stomachs hurt. And some of family members no longer with us that are especially touching now. It’s my favorite art in the house ~ photography entertainment where my family members are in the frames.
there we are, kissing in front of Cadillac Ranch
Johnson Rt 66 Trip June 2023
spray painted on a vertical hood
there we are, coffee and breakfast in Tulsa and
standing in front of the Blue Whale of Catoosa
brothers on a bench in El Reno
and our feet on a painted street sign
and look! there’s Boo Radley in the kayak
wearing his Nemo life vest
ready for adventure, whatever that means
oooh, and there we all are in
Tennessee in the VRBO on the mountain
playing dominoes and talking trash
and all the kids in the pool
rocking the place with waves
the littlest smiling, showing off two
recently cut bottom teeth
the others lined up on the front porch
steps eating watermelon
and us eating seafood listening to
Suno songs about us eating seafood
an engagement, a wedding, a cup
of coffee in Starbucks
and watching the Blue Angels
from the heat of a parking lot
and the oldest grandson
eating a Biblical meal
Poppy in the oldest pub in Boston
eating oysters
and us in the sun in Kennebunkport
each memory scrolls by
smiles in these moments
of living and holding presence
belonging for our time
as we live it
Common Threads 