I Was 19 in This Beach Photo… I Wish I Could Tell That Girl What Was Coming

There are photographs you glance at for a second before putting them away.

And then there are photographs that stop time.

Yesterday afternoon, while cleaning the attic, I climbed over boxes that hadn’t been opened in years. There were Christmas ornaments wrapped in yellowed newspaper, old report cards from my children, a broken fishing reel that belonged to my husband, and dozens of dusty photo albums whose pages had begun sticking together with age.