Trip Down Memory Lane

The past couple of days found me with nothing on my agenda so I decided to go through and sort out two large containers, which over the past four decades have been accumulating paper items(announcements, invitations, letters, cards, travel memorabilia, children's artwork, etc. etc.). I had no idea how big a task I had set before myself. I cried tears of joy and laughter as memories of: births and deaths, loves lost and found, marriages and divorces, first days of school and graduation, the list goes on and on.

What amazed me was how I (we) had forgotten so many of the good times, of the good memories. I had forgotten how I truly felt about the birth of my first child (I found a letter to my husband, who was stationed overseas at the time, that I had written immediately after her birth, describing her and my feelings.) I had totally forgotten the intimacy of that memory. I also found a letter from a friend long lost; he moved; I moved; he moved; I moved; addresses and phone numbers lost along the way (pre-cellphone/e-mail). I had forgotten how close our friendship had been. How good of a friend he was to me and how good of a friend I had been to him. Lost - Gone. How sad.

I think I have learned from this trip down memory lane. Journal the good times, journal the good thoughts and memories. The bad times I think should be written down, perhaps read out loud and then thrown away. Sounds like a plan . . . maybe.

Thought for the day: "Our memories are card indexes consulted and then returned in disorder by authorities whom we do not control." Cyril Connolly