Memories

Memory: An active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information into a usable form, and organizes it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage.


Have you ever had someone or something from your past that you put away deep in your mind and then one day you stumble upon it and you take it out and start looking at it? You hold it tight and try to remember why you put it away. You try to remember everything that it meant to you. You may imagine you smell be it cologne, a place you visited, a dish you cooked or any number of smells that could be associated with that memory. You close your eyes and vividly see the picture your mind paints of various moments. Like a slide show behind your eyelids, the movie plays. Various moments, like a PowerPoint presentation, come spinning up to be replaced by the next. You are so deep into this memory you can feel certain things. The brush of a hand, the warmth of an embrace, the feelings you thought were long gone come bubbling forth like molten lava spewing from the top of the mountain.

This happens ever so often to me. A friend that I had long ago, comes tumbling back into my mind like a tumbleweed across the Kansas prairie. I dust off all those old memories and recall each moment as if they were happening now, not 13 or 14 years ago or more.

Why do they come? Where do they come from? What triggers these happenings?

I used to believe that I had ESP when I was little. My grandma seems to have had it. At times I have seemed to have had it. I had an aunt once that when she got divorced from my uncle I seemed to have a sixth sense about when she would be in town. Days later we would find out that she had been there. So now, when I have a memory that comes tumbling out of the corner of my mind, I like to believe that the person I am remembering is remembering me too. I know that sounds really corny but I'm really pretty sentimental.

A few days ago, I had a memory come spinning out of nowhere. Are they thinking of me? Did they happen to stumble upon my blog? Do they remember the same memories that I hold dear? Do they know in their heart how much I miss them?

As I set and look through my memories. I dust them off and put them back. I know that in a few days that these memories will be pushed again to the back of my mind. Life will go on. But I will always have the memories we made. Maybe someday our paths will cross again. Maybe someday there will be new memories. Until then, I will cherish what I have now.