Yet, in my pocket I was holding the small things—the souvenir coin from the gallery gift shop, plastic spoons from our many stops for gelato, coins left over from cappuccino purchases, the cork from the bottle of champagne we sipped while crossing the Mediterranean, and bits of sea glass from the sands of Capri.
I loved these small things and decided to keep what was in my pocket. Once home I worked with a glass artist who enclosed these treasures in a glass box. This surprise gift for my daughter is something she can take with her or tuck away as she moves or settles down. This kaleidoscope of small things can be a touchstone of an experience that isn’t fulfilled by photographs alone.
In our exhilaration of being someplace we’ve always dreamed of, we can be tempted, maybe to the point of distraction, to try too hard to capture it all solely in photographs. Sometimes it’s the small things, the things we carry in our pockets, that evoke our fondest memories.
What do you keep from your travels? What do you put in your pocket?
[Photography by Moon Lake Multimedia. All rights reserved.]
alice
I love this! So much better that photos of famous scenes. So personal!
SheKeeps
Thanks, Alice!
Joan
What a lovely gift – and it’s true, I keep little things in my pocket that end up bringing me right back to the moment when I take them out later. Like pub coasters from England and Germany, a museum ticket stub I use as a bookmark, or a 1000 lira note from my own long ago trip to Rome.
Erin
I absolutely love this idea. I collect little trinkets, rocks, tickets, receipts, match packs, coasters, etc. from my trips and I don’t know how to always display them or end up throwing them away after awhile.