The most magic word we know is magnified on page 1139  of the Random House Dictionary. "Love" sleeps there with other "L" words like "louse" & "lousy" & "lovage" (a European plant of the parsley family) waiting to be awakened by our attention.

   "A profoundly passionate affection for another person," the first definition reads. Yet, we know that no combination of words can capture what love means to us.

   A photograph is a helpful gift. There are my son & me astride a horse in 1977. The moment he sent this rich memories returned of a day I would have forgotten without the the picture's prompting 

  Below is my son with his son off the Nantucket coast a few years back. For reasons only father's can know, both images break my heart. In each a man protects his offspring.

   Fathers are caregivers too.

   Any of us can magnify a memory from childhood. Most of us forget most moments.

   Pictures can vivify feelings in countless ways.

   The more you are present to old images of family & friends the better your chance to deepen your passion.

   Every photograph captures someone no longer that person. Who you & they were in that time is reborn when you see rather than glance. 

   Memories of love need tending lest they be lost. Sometimes only a photograph can retrieve them &, in so doing, make more sacred the fabric from which our lives are woven. 

   Snapshots should never be snap-seen. That is the risk of cell phone shots that, in their profundity, can drown the holiness of any specific image. 

   Those we love have sewn themselves into our hearts. Embroider your life with the golden thread their portraits toss into your hands. 

   Look back. See if you feel in new ways the "profound affection" of love redefined.

-Erie Chapman