What is Project Life?  According to the website, www.beckyhiggins.com, “Project Life is a back-to-basics approach to memory-keeping. This system is so simple, that it’s revolutionary.”

And it is simple and a wonderful way to document every day life, but it has fallen into the category of unfinished projects for me.  I started in January, 2012 and made it all the way through the end of February, 2012 documenting each week along the way.  I probably made it too complicated and set myself up for failure right from the start, but the idea of documenting our days is very compelling for me.

Last year on a visit to see my grandfather, we spent much of the two weeks going through old photographs and recording the stories of his life.  I went with about 4 pages of questions for him and came home with over 12 recorded hours of his answers.  As he told the stories I was able to identify many of the people he spoke about in the pictures and brought many of them home with me.  Writing down the story of his life is going to be a huge challenge, but one that I’m looking forward to because in many ways it’s also the story of my mom’s life, and also mine and my brothers.  It was while I was listening to him that it occurred to me how important it is to write down the memories while they’re still fresh.

I chose Project Life because it’s simplicity appealed to me.  You’re provided with plastic insert pages big enough for 4X6 and 3X4 pictures as well as cards.  You really can put anything into the pockets you want; ticket stubs, menus, programs, etc.  You can also insert other pages between your pocket pages because everything is held together in a 3-ring binder.  The kit also comes with color-coordinated journal cards.  It really is fantastic.

In fact as I pulled out my binder yesterday I found the week where I recorded that my brother and I got confirmation that we were entered in a half marathon set for September 16th.  Well we completed that race a few weeks ago and it was really cool to be able to look back and see what I wrote and remember how I felt in relation to having completed that goal.

With anything where I feel I have really dropped the ball, I have a tendency to want to start from scratch, have a do-over.  I don’t feel that way with this project.  I’m going to pick up where I left off.  2012 will have a HUGE gap in it, but hopefully the following years will be complete.  Commitment to change in this area involves getting serious about writing down the stories of our lives and making it a daily exercise. 

“We were wondering if you’re going to do separate album just about us?  Mostly because of all the pictures you take.  Of us.  We’ve seen your album and we don’t think there’s enough room.”