It’s a nice thing to curate something that will be remembered for the future, to document our name and the names of our family so that we will be known. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to go to extremes, simply living a good life is important enough, and of course, having children is the ultimate expression of this desire.
That said, without getting too deep into the idea, there’s something nice when we mark our presence in the world around us. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to do that either, civilizations stretching back thousands of years have thought about how they’d like to be remembered. Cave art and other findings have allowed us to ponder how the earliest humans developed. While we may not want to persist over such a long time in the future, having something our grandchildren or those that come after can remember is a nice idea.
But how can we document our family presence should we wish to? Let’s consider some of that, below:
Name A Star
Naming a star can be a really nice way of memorializing your family, and there are services that help you add your star’s name to the UK register, ensuring that it is now documented as that from here on out. Thankfully, it turns out that there are more than enough stars out there, so you don’t have to be choosy or feel as if the race is on to pick one! Many services can even provide you with a virtual app tracking utility to help you see where your star may be in the night sky, that which you may like to make a wish on. Of course, this is mostly just a nice gift or a nice thought you could purchase for someone or for your family, but it doesn’t make its symbolism any less powerful.
Leave A Time Capsule
Many of us dream about digging up a time capsule with plenty of amazingly historical finds and well-wishes from the past, but what about leaving one? It may be that leaving a time capsule in your garden can help people potentially generations from now come across documentation relating to your family, from pictures to family implements that mean something to you as well as photographs showcasing what your house used to look like. Who knows who might dig this up in time? It may even be that far off relations to you find it, or perhaps you inspire another family to take care of this, too. That sounds like a wonderful approach to us.
Have Photo Prints Made
Photo prints can also be a great way of documenting your family. They provide something a little more tangible and enjoyable than digital pictures, and they can also be applied to larger fixtures or be used as decorations in your house as time goes on. You can go here for canvas prints to get the best quality items and to see what photo reproduction options you have.
This can also be a great way of supplying your distant relatives with pictures of your close family, and so on and so forth. There’s something wonderful present about photo prints that is hard to compare with other considerations, even rivalling the convenience of email and more. Photo prints can also be applied to a wide variety of products you can enjoy in the meantime. Sometimes, it’s just nice to have pictures of your family’s most cherished moments surrounding you, as they can help you realize just what you have on the bad days, and feel extra grateful on the good.
Write Within Your Walls
The next time you renovate your home, you may have the chance to write a nice message within your walls. This might involve the names of your family members, their ages, perhaps their heights, and a little message for the future too. This can function as its own mini well-wishing time capsule. After all, who knows who will renovate your house in the future and come across your message, a remnant of your time in that place, and think of you?
Of course, it’s hard to confirm that anyone will, but it’s certainly nice to think that someone will read our message in the future. At the very least, your message is there, and it’s always approachable if necessary. Furthermore, you might find that when beginning your renovations, you come across your own documented evidence of previous life in your household. Little rewards like this can perk us up, and help us see the value in it.
Write Letters Or Journals
Writing letters or journals may seem somewhat antiquated in today’s digital world, but if nothing else, reading a journal you have written years later can be tremendously insightful and interesting. For instance, if you have love letters from your partner, save them! Who knows how a grandchild might feel about them, or what insights they could glean from your words in the future.
Of course, it’s not entirely the point to journal and do so thinking about what your great-great-grandchild might think about it. But we don’t have to be narcissists to get the benefit of documenting our family life in this way. Photo albums, scrapbooks, journals, artwork, and heirlooms we save to cherish memories and to have physical proof of our family can be a lovely idea, no matter to what extent you curate that and how it develops. This may sound tremendously obvious, but nothing really compares to being on the receiving end of this, as many of us jealously guard the possessions handed down to us through our family line too.
With this advice, we hope you can find suitable and enjoyable ways in which to document your family presence. There’s no need to think too hard about it and worry about doing it ‘the right way,’ the more fun you have with this process and the more you get your children involved too, the better! We’re sure whoever comes across your materials or is the beneficiary of certain schemes (like sponsoring a star) will be tremendously happy for your effort.
This is a collaborative post. Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash