Scrapping the tough stuff

There has been a bit of discussion both on the Studio Calico boards and elsewhere lately, on the difficulty of scrapping the tough parts of life. Much of this discussion has been in relation to Project Life but I think it is equally applicable in the broader context of layouts.

I think as scrapbookers we are often guilty of selective memory keeping. It is easier to scrap the good and fun times. Perhaps we are doing ourselves and our families a disservice by painting a much rosier picture of our lives than is really the case. I am absolutely guilty of this. In part, I think it is because I tend not to take photos of the tough times. There are not many photos of the tears that accompanied our journey to have my daughter, or the days after the February quake in Christchurch when we waited for news of missing loved ones. Those events are important and I have not really scrapped them and I need to.

The second anniversary of the quake and tsunami in Japan gave me a push to start recording some of the tougher moments in our lives. We were in Tokyo by chance on the day of the quake. We knew it had been a major event but had no idea of the extent of the damage and destruction further north. We had a fairly intense 24 hours with missing family members, no power or food and our hotel completely over run with refugees. I have quite a few photos from that day and so I have finally started to do something with them.

 

For me the hardest part was keeping calm so that Scarlett wasn't alarmed. She did not get too upset by the frequent aftershocks. I have to say possibly the worst moment of my life was during a very powerful aftershock when we were in a double decker tunnel sort of road. I felt sure the top layer was going to come down on top of us on the bottom level and we would be buried alive. I was very relieved to get onto Odaiba where we were staying just before they shut all access to the island.

This photo was taken by the famous pedestrian crossing in central Tokyo that is beloved of film makers and music video directors everywhere. All public transport had just been shut down as all roads and rail lines had to be checked for safety. This meant hundreds of thousands of people were stranded in the central city unable to reach their homes. People were just starting to realise that this was a major event and news was filtering through that people had died in Tokyo as well as further afield. We were very fortunate to have a car. We had intended to use the train but Tet's brother was running very late so he drove into the city. If he had not, we would have had to spend the night at a school or community hall as there was no way to get to where we were staying.

I used the Layout A Week prompt for week 3 on Studio Calico's site for this layout. It was a recipe using a piece of cardstock and three patterned paper sheets and up to 10 embellies. We also could include our word for the year if we had one. Our word this year is adventure and it sat well with the story here.

Have you scrapped any of the less rosy aspects of life lately? Please link up in the comments and I am definitely looking for inspiration in this area. There are some big stories that need telling even if it will be hard to do so.