We're all in this together

1956

2013

'Be a good girl,' they said so I put my hands together in prayer because I was told a praying child was a good thing.  So the photograph was taken; by a peripatetic photographer with little sense of setting - in this case against the frosted glass of the kitchen door

The grown up version - a selfie on an iPad - also with little sense of setting but the wise advantage of gravity.  Did I say grown-up?  I suppose it's time. 

Two images, fifty-seven years between and, to my mind, very little difference between them - except my mother doesn't cut my fringe any more. 

There's a great impulse to somehow reflect on the the intervening years: countries visited, children born, trials, triumphs, loves and losses. I leave a marker here.  There have been more gains than losses and if it all ended now, I'd howl in protest because it's been good.  It is good. The heart that beat in that little chest beats still and still is full of excitement and expectation. People still to meet, to know, to love, to grieve over. Mistakes still to make, lessons still to learn. And still trying to be good.  And still failing, happily.

Gabby Young