Sorting Photos Before They Sort Me

A simple system for a ridiculous pile.

Friends,

So . . . All those paper photographs I’ve stored forever? They’re on the move.

Already, I’ve emptied the tall bureau filled with snapshots. Ferreted a dozen full photo boxes from a spare bedroom closet. Emptied our aging albums and frames and added their pics to the mix. I’ve stacked all the photos . . .

ALL OF THEM . . .

in our breakfast nook, where I’ve moved a second full-sized table alongside the one that lives there and placed a discard box beneath it. For weeks now, smack in the middle of our daily life, THOUSANDS of family photos have covered both tables, reminding me fondly of what was.

They’ve also done more than that. They’ve pestered me. Overwhelmed me. Asked for my interpretation. Right now.

I’m determined to address them all.

I have reasons.

• I’d like to eat in that room again. On a table.

• I’d like to give each of our kids a collection of memory seeds, which they can plant (or not) in their own stories. An heirloom bank of sorts—like these our daughter sent for my birthday 🧡:

  

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• Since my narrative’s in those pics, too, I’m itching to update it from the excellent vantage point of a woman seasoned by time. While my themes and worldview have distilled and clarified with the years, I still hope to savor and learn from these photos. To identify fog in my history and to celebrate its ongoing clearing. To track my story’s through-line and meaning. To crystallize ways I can love in whatever seasons remain.

THEREFORE, after assembling every paper photograph I could find in our house, Here’s how I’ve proceeded.

1. First, I labeled boxes:

• Extended Family/ History (Earlier generations)

• Home - Pictures of places we’ve lived.

• Siblings/Immediate Family - More than one of our children are in each shot, and one or both of their parents (us) might be

• Andrew (Son) - Without his sibling

• Avery (Daughter) - Again, no sibling.

• Blake and Cheryl - No offspring in these pics. Photos of our animals sans family humans landed here. So did shots of special friends/events that didn’t include family.

• Grands - With or without their parents

2. Then, I hung my emotions on a hook and quickly sorted every photo into those boxes. I’ve finished this part, so even with ten zillion pics, I know it’s doable.

3. I flipped all pics from one box face-down on the table. If they were dated, I arranged them chronologically without looking at them. I left individual children’s boxes for LAST, so I could add pictures from other boxes to them.

4. Then I turned UNdated photos face-up and inserted them into the chronology of those dated pics. I guessed dates on some, but I slotted them all into the timeline.

5. Next, I grouped events/ages and duplicates together. So far, so good.

But I knew I couldn’t keep them all. Shouldn’t. This was about to get harder.

So I took a walk. Remembered that the images wouldn’t save me, that my family could thrive with or without them.

On the trail, I paused and allowed The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning and Matthew 6:19-21 to ring in my ears. Remembered that the fears and sorrows, the joys, hopes, and loves in all those memories have a way of attaching to the stuff that represents them—in this case, to photos—which makes them so hard to release. I reminded myself that while photos can clarify perspective, clinging to them won’t.

5. Instead, I clung to Love through my next sorting—who, for me, is Jesus—and I kept only gems I’d be glad to see again. Unless I believed kids might want one or two, I pitched duplicates and slight variations of my winners. (The curator’s prerogative. Ha!)

6. I still have a ways to go, but I’ve repeated the process with the next box, and the next.

7. I’ll pass them on when the time’s right.

So far, the results have been startling and wonderful. The house is roomier. The load is lifting. Photos I’ve kept now feel rare and precious. While I sometimes wish for one I clumsily let go, I trust God’s provision. I’ll have what I need. So will my husband and kids and their kids.

Like this one from my great-grandmother. Circa 1919, it’s an E. Andrews photo of Wrangell, Alaska, where Gram lived as a young wife and mother.

I instantly framed it and hung it above my desk. My new novel begins right there, right then. An astonishing, timely find.

Pretty easy to keep this one.

📙📙📙And FROM MY BOOKERY . . .

A WINNER!

Congratulations to ROBIN GARRISON! We plucked your name from the hat for a copy of Leaning on Air! Please reply with your postal address and I’ll ship the book right off to you.

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I have two brand new books to give away this month to winning subscribers! You can enter for either or both.

The first, Collide: Running into Healing When Life Hands you Hurt, releases March 10th, and is ministry leader Willow Weston’s long-awaited DEBUT!

Here’s the gist:

What if your pain is the place where healing begins?

Life doesn’t always turn out the way we hoped. Heartbreak, trauma, loss, shame—it can leave us feeling shattered, overwhelmed, and messy. We often try to run from our hurt, but we never get far. Our unresolved pain comes out sideways appearing as anxiety, unforgiveness, friendship break—ups, big feelings and discontentment. But what if healing our hurt is possible? What if our healing can help those hurting around us?

In Collide, Willow Weston invites you to bravely let Jesus run into your hurt—trusting it’s right there that He collides with your mess and brokenness to bring healing, freedom, and transformation.

Through Willow’s own broken and raw story—we are given permission to be real. She will help you understand how Jesus collides with the messiest parts of our lives, not to condemn, but to walk with us, heal what’s hurting, and begin the slow, beautiful work of making us whole.

With honesty, compassion, humor, and deep spiritual insight, Willow helps you:

• uncover the roots of your past hurt and recognize how it’s shaping your present

• confront the harmful patterns and beliefs that keep you stuck

• discover that emotional healing begins not by avoiding your hurt, but by bravely stepping into it

• explore what Scripture says about pain, weakness, and the nearness of God

• experience healing that not only transforms your own life, but also brings restoration to those around you

Collide is a powerful invitation to run—limping, weeping, doubting, hopeful—straight into the arms of Jesus. Because it’s there, in the collision of your pain and His presence, that true healing can begin.

Just what you’re looking for? REPLY with COLLIDE in your subject line and I’ll enter you for a paperback copy.

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Next, Julie Bonn Blank has a copy of her eagerly anticipated new release for one of you! REPLY with HEAVEN in your subject line to enter the drawing for Routed to Heaven: How Near-Death Experiences , Afterlife Testimonies, and Heavenly Insights Can Help You Live with Intention.

Here’s the skinny on this one:

What happens when Heaven doesn’t just reveal itself—but sends you back with a mission?

In Routed to Heaven, Julie Bonn Blank shares the moments that changed everything: a sudden medical crisis, clinical death, and a breathtaking encounter with Jesus Himself. Standing in Heaven, overwhelmed by love and beauty beyond words, Julie received a message that would redirect the course of her life: “There is still so much work to be done.”

But this book is far more than one extraordinary near-death or afterlife experience.

Routed to Heaven weaves together over twenty additional powerful testimonies from people who briefly crossed into eternity—children healed after death, abuse survivors guided by the Holy Spirit, one person sent back to earth for a do-over, and believers who stood at Heaven’s gates and returned forever changed. These stories affirm what so many long for in uncertain times: Heaven is real. God is near. And our lives matter more than we realize.

What sets this book apart is its purpose.

Each testimony is paired with Julie’s honest, compassionate reflections that address the real-life obstacles keeping believers from living with eternal focus—fear, grief, trauma, unforgiveness, mental health struggles, waiting on God, spiritual warfare, and more. With wisdom shaped by personal suffering and years of ministry, Julie doesn’t just inspire—she equips.

At the heart of the book is what she calls the Heaven-Minded Mission Manifesto—a practical framework designed to help readers stop sleepwalking through life and begin living with bold Kingdom intention. Through prayer, worship, gratitude, belief, and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, readers are invited to move from survival to activated faith.

With thoughtful Pause & Ponder sections at the end of each chapter, Routed to Heaven becomes more than a book—it becomes a journey of awakening. For those who want to go deeper, the Companion Study Guide expands on these reflections with guided questions, scripture exploration, and practical exercises—making it ideal for personal growth, small groups, or church studies.

If you’ve ever wondered whether Heaven is real…
If you’ve questioned whether your life has greater purpose…
If you’re longing for hope, healing, or renewed fire for God…

This book is your invitation.

Heaven is watching. The time is short. And your mission matters.

*** Finally, some sweet news arrived recently. I’m delighted to share that my latest novel What the River Keeps, a Kirkus Reviews Best Indies Book of June 2025 and Christianity Today’s Fiction Award of Merit Winner, is a finalist for the 2025 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards . . .

and a finalist in the CIBA Somerset Awards for Contemporary and Literary Fiction!

Winners will be announced later this spring.

It’s so humbling to have my work in the company of such stellar novels. I’m hugely grateful to God for, well, all of it—and to you, wonderful readers, for picking up my books.

Needless to say, I’m tickled ink.

Love,

Cheryl

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