A picture is worth a thousand words.....

A college friend recently posted a picture of  us of back in the day and honestly it was a picture I don't even remember taking ( old age will do that for you, LOL).  And though I don't remember the event I remember the people, I remember the fun times we had, the bonds we formed and the friendship, laughter and good times.

I can tell from the photo we were at my friend Carolyn's off campus apartment , we were still in our 'Rap" phase where we were hard core rap fans who struck our b girl  crew poses whenever a camera was present.  For those who may not know back then, a b girl was the female equivalent of a b boy, a form of breaker, hiphopper or dancer, someone who was involved largely in the hip hop culture.  I understand the term means something quite different now.   It was also in  our  pre-sorority days  early in our college years because after we pledged anytime a photo was taken the sorority sign would be thrown up.

When my friend sent the picture it did evoke a lot of memories and made me wonder what other pictures were out there, long forgotten , snapshots of good times stored away in the memory banks so I went looking.....

Everyone knows I love a good quote so I found one that really sums up the essence of this blog:

So in seeking some instances out of time I decided to share just a few here.  

I found one of my grandmother in her younger days, sitting barefoot in the sun on the steps of the house we lived in at that time.  This brought back memories of her, the house, my room, and the good times we had there.  I learned to skate and ride a bike there.  I also used to sit on those steps and wait for her to come home from work, so I could tell on everyone else before she got in the house and they tell her what misbehaving I had done :) 

 I love to sit outside in the sun barefoot so the picture reminded me that is probably where I got it from.  The photo also reminds me that our elders were young once and probably have some interesting stories to tell if we would take the time to ask and listen.

There is another of her standing in the shade of a tree so her face is hidden but what draws my attention is her long legs and she's smiling, still barefoot standing in the yard.

  It reminded me of my trip to Africa, once I got out of the water where our ancestors were bathed before taken away to be sold I didn't want to put my shoes back on.  I walked around barefoot while we were there and the earth felt so soft and so cool beneath my feet.  I didn't put my shoes back on until we left to go another destination.

So, three things among the many I got from Mama was enjoying the sunshine, smiling and sitting outside with bare feet.  It reminds me of the Zora Neale Hurston quote:

So this post is dedicated to her, the sun,  smiling, bare feet and taking opportunities to jump at  ( or in my case bask in) the sun.  Love you Mama!