More Than a Memory

You know that feeling, when a picture takes you back - not just to a memory of a time or place, but to the smell, the sights, the feelings you were experiencing? I love these deeper memories. The photo above always brings me back to the Mediterranean cruise I went on with my cousin Kathleen and her dad (my uncle). Right behind me, just out of the frame on the left, were wide open doors to the deck overlooking the sea. There was a cool, salty breeze making it's way over us as we posed. The statue (fondly named Ligon by myself and Kathleen) was quite ornate and every time I see this photo my fingers feel the cool, mosaic-like texture once again. I even remember the pain from my awkwardly layered bobby pins at the back of my head, which I fixed only moments after the photo was taken.

Sometimes it's even a photo that I wasn't actually present for, but of a place that I have been many times, or of a setting I have experienced before. I just came across a photo of a girl I vaguely know in the hills with the Stations of the Cross by Lebret, SK in the clear blue summer skies and the crisp afternoon sun. I was instantly transported to the last time I was there. The smell of the summer heat, the tall grass, the soft breeze, and the dirt path crunching underfoot. The tension in my calves from climbing the slight incline, and the mid-day sun beaming down on me, burning me.

I relish these moments, because I feel as though they are more than simply a memory.

Do you have any photos that bring you something a little more than a memory?