Recollections

August 2021 

Today I ponder reminiscing.  No, not the classic Little River Band song. Although, “We'll go dancing in the dark... Walking through the park and reminiscing” is in my head now.  Maybe in yours as well.  Sorry about that!

What’s on my mind today is the power of recollecting memories and experiences.  The art of looking back, in order to move forward.  Or just to feel a little better about today.  We all have these flashes of recollection.  Many regarding powerful moments that have impacted our lives.  Today, I feel like thinking more deeply about these times. And how far reaching they really are. How far beyond just ourselves. Even to the point of reflecting on how we make memories for others without even knowing it.

Life may frequently seem exceedingly complex, and often it is.  If you break it down, it is quite simple. We truly live in a series of moments. Captured fractions of time in which we harness feelings that turn to memories.  These are often poignant instances, that exemplify many emotions. Periodic instances of joy, strength, love, sadness, and even fear. Some painful. Some shared. Some forbidden. Some never forgotten. Some only hesitantly remembered.

Some of these moments might caress our souls for eternity. If we let them.  Others we discard or let go, too painful to remember. Too hard to share. Too searing to allow to linger. When they come back into our thoughts, we quickly banish them. Compartmentalizing them into the purgatory of our mind.  Metaphorically, memories are a bit like windows which open and close to let the winds of change blow back our hair. Often the air stagnates, like a swamp of despair, that begs us to filter them away. 

Or better yet, maybe memories are a doorway. You’re able to walk through and out.  You can turn around and look back, before you leave the memories behind.  You can slam that door shut, closing a chapter in your story.  Leaving that place and entering the passageway to a new location, to make new memories. To open and close more doors.  Meanwhile, drawing strength from the shadows of the past. The forbidden, the forgotten, the forlorn. That’s where wisdom comes from.

Often memories are shared, but not always. Frequently you provide memories for others that do not become part of your own memory arsenal.  We make these types of memories for others every single day. Both good ones, and bad.  Those lives you touch without knowing.  Yes, your impact on others is always greater than you think.

Maybe it’s a funny story you’ve told, generating a smile months or years in the future. Maybe it’s advice you have given that changed the direction of a life, or just made someone think twice.  Maybe it’s a supporting nod of acknowledgment, that made a moment for someone else. Now a memory for them, awaiting recollection. This becomes the silent admiration people feel for you, that is based on memories you’ve created for them. Almost always hidden from us.

You are most certainly a significant part of other’s recollections.  So you are an element in memories way beyond just your own.  Your very existence is a puzzle piece in the way others see the world, in fractions of time.  Moments where you made a memory that will find a way to live forever. 

So rather than a door or a window, I like to think about memories as a spring rain, or better yet a tropical shower. Warm and encompassing.  The giver of life.  Allowing us to learn and grow from the pains, as well as find joy in the pleasures, of the past. For both our lives and those whose lives we pass silently through.

To quote those seers from down under...

Now as the years roll on...Each time we hear our favorite song...The memories come along.Older times we're missing spending the hours reminiscing.