The Latest Portrait

As I look at the latest portrait…taken yesterday of our family…. it occurs to me that we never take a picture of our entire family tree. How no two family portraits can ever be the same. How we've all changed a little since the last photo and how there's always someone missing from the frame. For instance Bryan, our son, and Bonnie, our friend, have both moved away. and do not often show up in family portraits… like the one we took yesterday. Both Deborah's and my parents have long since passed away which means they're also not in the family portrait we took yesterday. With every portrait we take…it becomes clearer and clearer to me… we are only taking close-ups of a portion of our tree. But…rather than be sad…I find myself happy instead… because each portrait opens the door to all the family photos that are floating in my head. Every photo ever taken of every branch of our family tree… is floating in my memory…waiting there of me to pick one or two photos and…sometimes with a tear sometimes with a grin… wait…as in this latest family portrait…my mind photoshops them in. That is why when I look at this family portrait… the message to me it sends… Is just how far the roots of our family tree extend. And why in every family portrait taken… so many of my family members are easy for me to spot… whether they are sitting there right next to me… or floating in my thoughts.