Photo by Gillian Mangan
What Is It?
Do you own something that takes you on an instant emotional trip to another place or time?
This photo album gives me such pause, but there isn’t a single photo in it. Dusty, worn and covered in black corduroy fabric, the album has made it through our family’s six moves. When we move again (see Countdown to Something at right), it will go with us.
I bought the album when we lived in what was to be our forever home. We named it “Oak Lane Cottage” for its cozy design and proximity to large grand oak trees whose branches intertwined like an old lady’s fingers letting the sun filter through the canopy. Naming our home somehow guaranteed certainty as if bequeathing a title to a structure could do that.
Why Is It Special?
In 2005, Mike and I were a busy married couple, both working full-time jobs while loving and caring for our two children, Griffin and Gillian, 10 and 8 years old. Mike had recently accepted a position at Merrill Lynch which required extensive evening studying for financial certifications toward his securities license.
One night at home after dinner, the kids and I plopped down on the couch in front of the TV. We were all restless. Instead of watching some mindless television show, I grabbed a book – random, really – off the shelf. It was a poetry collection for children. I don’t remember the name, but I remember it included the poetry of Williams Carlos Williams. So I read a few poems including Williams’ The Red Wheelbarrow to Griffin and Gillian. I must admit, at the time, poetry wasn’t a usual family go-to, but on that night, it was. It calmed us in an unexpected, lovely way. Inspired us, too – so much, in fact, we grabbed some 3 x 5 notecards on the table and decided to create our own poetry.
Hey, if a wheelbarrow can be a source of poetic inspiration, maybe something else could!
Photo by Gillian Mangan
And we kept writing. We would read famous poetry to set the stage for our writing sessions. Mike joined in from time to time. Originally, I kept the notecards in a basket. Afraid they’d get tossed out, I decided to use an empty black corduroy photo album to store the cards which fit perfectly in the plastic sleeves.
Where Do I Keep It?
We called our collection The Oak Lane Cottage Anthology of Random Poetry by Griffin, Gillian and Amy Mangan, complete with its own title on the front sleeve of the album, written in ink on a 3 x 5 notecard, naturally.
For three years until 2008, we contributed to our collection. Then the fall of 2008 brought the fall of a lot things – our nation’s economy, sub-prime mortgages, and, for our family, life as we knew it. Within six months’ time, Mike and I both lost our jobs. Eventually, we would leave Oak Lane Cottage, but, we took with us some beautiful memories from the only home we’ve ever named including one worn corduroy album of handwritten poetry created out of love.
I keep the album on the bookshelf behind my desk in the study. Sometimes, I’ll read from it. Usually, I swell up with so much emotion, I feel like I’ve swallowed my heart. My family and I have lived several chapters since those nights in a cottage by the oaks. We lost a few things in our moves, but we’ll always have a familial keepsake of a time when TVs and tennis shoes and a sketch of a girl with saltwater eyes came alive.
What I Learned From an Empty Photo Album
- When given the option to watch TV or read with your family, pick up a book. You never know where that will take you.
- Discard the notion that poetry is inaccessible.
- Sometimes life can be measured in the small things and spontaneous experiences that make you want to swallow your heart…like 3 x 5 notecards of love.
What have you learned from an unplanned moment?
