Tag: Memories Page 1 of 2

Now that real winter is upon us and the snow is flying in earnest, temperatures plummeting, what do you want from life most of all?

If you can manage to factor in hope of some kind, whether it be hope for a better world, hope for a better you or hope that ensures the power stays on more often than not for much of the polar vortex’s affected areas, impending impermanence will not unnecessarily impact you.

What I want is to always be able to summon creativity. I want to write, compose songs and see if I can make my dogs laugh.

I want what others deem worthless, for if I have enough of what others consider to be of little to no value, I will have exceeded my own expectations for not caring about things beyond my control.

If you live in an old home as I do, survival can come to the forefront when it is storming outside. Between the furnace running non-stop and the 20-year old water heater faithfully cranking out hot water for bathing and dish-washing, I silently root for their continued good performance.

What do you want

We’re all on separate, impermanent journeys. It’s not selfish to know what you want. When I was younger I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I like to say I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

I supposed that makes me a kid or means I look at myself still as a kid. If so, then I suppose I am in denial as to the impermanence of everything. Or, I secretly lust for the knowledge of who I want to be, who I want to become, like so few who do.

Everyone is going somewhere. However, we all eventually get to the same place at the end of our lives. For me, it’s not the journey or the destination. It’s who you’re with as you navigate the waters and grounds of life.

Memories light the corners

If you prefer the drifting, solo way of life, snowfall and the memories one creates during it, are left to no one but the individuals themselves. I would suggest that what’s most important is who you are with while you traverse it all. For, when someone dies who’s made more memories together with someone besides themselves, their own memory endures by extension.

Digital imprints notwithstanding, what we become in the end after all the hoping is said and done, is the memories others have of us. This is not sad as much as it’s just the way it is.

So if the memories others have of you are the basis of your legacy, it would make sense to not just surround yourself with acquaintances or friend wannabes but to spend the majority of non-alone time in the company of the few good friends anyone has.

Do-overs

You don’t often get second chances no matter the time, place, or person. Snow falls the same throughout one’s life. It invokes memories while the wind carries it to its final resting place.

It bonds with snowflakes that have fallen before it.

Just like a person at the crossroads of life and death, where hope intersects finality, like the snow that has fallen, memories recede as love predominates.