My blog is Sand On The Brain because I am quite often island dreaming and mentally somewhere with sandy shores and turquoise waters. When I need a more visual escape –but don’t have the luxury of hopping a plane — I do what I think many of us do; pull up (our out) the vacation pictures. After all, why do we take pictures in the first place? To hang on to those moments for a little longer, for a lifetime, for those moments we want to clearly remember.

Maybe you transfer your pictures to your computer to make room on the memory card for your next trip or event. Maybe that computer crashes and can’t be recovered. Maybe is not “maybe” for me. 

I am in mourning. Having moved from rolls of film in days of old, to tiny digital technology memory cards, I have made the ultimate mistake; I never backed up my pictures.  I think it’s safe to say that I am actually going through the stages of loss. I was in denial (still struggling there….) and am hovering around acceptance at some moments.

Our pictures are moments captured forever. My niece’s first view of the beach at sunset. The video of her splashing in the water. Surprise parties full of family and friends’ smiles and laughter. Places my husband and I traveled together; our lives chronicled.

And so, I resolve to;  inventory what I have on memory cards, go through scrapbook “plans” in storage bins, ask others to share pictures they took (if I was not the sole photographer, which I so often am)…. and most importantly heed the wake up call to BACK UP my files on the shiny new external drive and write them to CDs.

If you don’t back up your digital pictures, let my experience serve as a lesson. A sad, pouty-lip-sticking-out lesson.