scrapbooking hard stuff

I have been working through photos from the end of last summer. And I've been avoiding one high-volume week of photos. Today I decided to chip away at it.

When I posted the birthday layout on Friday, Wendy commented and said that there are few occasions she feels obligated to scrapbook, and birthdays are one of them. I feel the same way, but for me, it's birthdays and beach weeks. And I've been putting off recording our late summer beach week memories. Why, you ask? Because those memories are hard.

It was the week before preschool and Andrew was having a very hard time. It was one of the worst periods we've had with him. He was feeling some pretty extreme anxiety about school and it made him irritable, argumentative and suddenly stubborn about some weird routines he'd started. It was one of the hardest weeks of my life. But, since we were at the beach, I have all these photos from that time. And I've felt torn about how to handle them.

Do I gloss over the dark parts and just give attention to the highlights? Do I avoid the week altogether? Or, should I try for a more honest approach?

I've decided to go with honesty. And I made that decision for several reasons. One is that looking back at that time and seeing how hard it was has been strangely therapeutic. Another is that I'm feeling more and more certain that recording the hard stuff will be good to look back on. It might end up being helpful. It will probably help Andrew and me (and maybe others) have a better understanding of Andrew and how he ticks. It will add to the bigger picture. And one day, if Andrew were to have kids with similar challenges, it will be helpful information for him and his family to have.

And there is something about bringing light into darkness that makes the darkness not feel so dark anymore.