A moment

I found some old passport photos of my sister and I with my father. We are probably about 5 and 7 years old. There are four of them. One of me on my own, chin tilted up as far as I can manage not quite believing that the swivel seat has been turned high enough for me to be seen. In one my sister sits serenely, hair pulled back from her forehead with curls falling away from her face. She is smiling. She looks just as her daughter India will look - the exact same expression. In another her face is turned away, but her eyes are looking forwards. She has a knowing, slightly audacious look, as if such a pose could be seen as cutting edge. In the final photo we are both perched on my father's knee, three heads crammed together. I am still arching my neck in a bid to be seen, Fran is still smiling and Dad looks content being with the girls he never thought he would have. If I have our ages correct, then not long after we would have another sister.

I look at these images and see how time has passed. How simple moments captured can evoke memories bright and sad. How things change and yet stay the same. How we are the sum of everything in our lives that has gone before this moment.

Tonight I walk the Moonwalk again. For Fran. Life doesn't ever go to plan, we cannot foresee our future, we cannot change the past. Your life is worth celebrating.

So let it go.

Live in the moment.

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