Sentiment - Video and photo montage production

I love this poem, its beautiful and simple and hard hitting.  I’d like to share it with you so when you have time with your family this weekend you can  remember to slow down and take a little more time… because when we are  so consumed with being busy and stressed out we forget to appreciate the moments that really matter.

Have a lovely weekend everyone  xx

If I Knew / Tomorrow never comes

by Norma Cornett Marek

If I knew it would be the last time
that I’d see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.

If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.

If I knew it would be the last time
I’d hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.

If I knew it would be the last time,
I could spare an extra minute
to stop and say “I love you,”
instead of assuming you would know I do.

If I knew it would be the last time
I would be there to share your day,
Well I’m sure you’ll have so many more,
so I can let just this one slip away.

For surely there’s always tomorrow
to make up for an oversight,
And we always get a second chance
to make everything just right.

There will always be another day
to say “I love you,”
And certainly there’s another chance
to say our “Anything I can do?”

But just in case I might be wrong,
and today is all I get,
I’d like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget.

Tomorrow is not promised to anyone,
young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance
you get to hold your loved one tight.

So if you’re waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you’ll surely regret the day,

That you didn’t take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss
And you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today,
and whisper in their ear,
Tell them how much you love them
and that you’ll always hold them dear

Take time to say “I’m sorry,” “Thank you,”
“Please forgive me,” or “It’s okay.”
And if tomorrow never comes,
you’ll have no regrets about today.

Once upon a time a wise old man asked me to do him a favour and my response was  “I’ll do it tomorrow”, the wise old man responded  in a low knowing tone “Louise, tomorrow never comes” …

OK, lets be honest. That old man was my old man!  The conversation revolved around me tidying my bedroom and like most 15 year olds, I’d do anything  other than tidy my bedroom!

At my wedding some 9 years later, my dad informed me (and the 150 guests in the room) that for years he used to pick all my underwear off my bedroom floor and throw it into a bin bag in the garages. He’d always planned on giving me the bin bag of underwear back,  but he was bemused that after years  I’d never asked where all my stuff was going!  It seemed my diminishing wardrobe was something I just seemed to accept, maybe I just thought the washing machine had eaten them or maybe I just couldn’t be bothered to go looking for them!

So on my wedding day at the ripe old age of 24, my dad sent me on my way to a new life with a very good lesson… Procrastination has consequences. (and pick your shit up or you’ll lose it!!)

Come on then, own up, how many of you have got a pile of ‘stuff’ that needs sorting, a box of photos that are sat under the stairs, a box of old videos that you fully intend to sort out, a drawn full of ‘stuff’  and box’s of ‘things’ the kids made that you don’t really want but just cant throw away?

The art of procrastination is deep within most people, and its not just the mundane boring things like cleaning the cutlery drawer that we put off until tomorrow, It’s the important things too – things that if never done will have some very sad consequences  (sorting and backing up photos, organising the old videos and documenting family history, etc).

We often only see the mountain, therefore we don’t even attempt to start chipping away – why not?

How many people do you know that say they’re going to do something important and meaningful such as…

• Calling an old friend
• Going to see Auntie Agatha (the last remaining relative on their Grandmothers side) to find out some family history.
• Sitting their mum down and getting her to write down all the people in the family photo from 1960
• Chasing an old friend for the video they took at their wedding
• Giving an old  friend some photos they’ve been asking for for 5 years
• Getting a copy of a photo of their best friend from when they were 10 years old
• Organising their photos into albums
• Putting all their videos together and sending them off to be them edited and transferred into watchable digital footage.
• Writing letters and stories to their children

… but never quite get round to it! Then all of a sudden someone close dies and well, bugger.. now its too late!?

Even super women like myself  *chuckle chukle*  always have an excuse of why we’ve not done tasks,  after all I’ve not updated my blog for nearly 2 weeks *tut tut tut* and my excuse is ” I’ve just had a baby and I’m still running a business” … But isn’t there always an excuse?

Today, please take away a bit of advise:

1) Imagine having done all those things you mean to have done – how would you feel?

2) Start a project -  If you popped your clogs tomorrow at least your kids would have an idea of what those 100 photos are of even if they don’t know what the other 2,000 are!

3) Back up back up back up.  It takes few seconds everyday to back up your files – if you don’t have an external hard dive buy one – from Amazon

4) Use digital photo sites like picasa

5) Share videos and photos from friends using dropbox

6) Start working on memory books and digital photo albums – if you want hassle free, high end, professionally organised, designed and printed memory books then on  then come us Sentiment Ltd – or if you want to do it yourself then try photobox and snapfish

7) Send all your old video and cine film to be transfered -  you can use digital copycat  or come to us at Sentiment Ltd to edit all the best bits with music and interviews to make something truly special

See that lotsof people are in the same boat – heres some extra tips on sorting out your photos and tools you can use

9) Phone your aunt for that long awaited chat – you may learn somthing and make her very happy in the process.

10) Tell someone you love them.

So whats your plan? what are you going to do with all this ‘stuff’? Has tomorrow finally arrived?