I read something on Facebook yesterday from one of my childhood friends that wished he could go back and live in the days when he was young. I suppose the memories of this time appealed to him; made him long for the simpler times. Problem is, we all learn in reverse. When we’re young, we don’t realize how good we’ve got it. We always want to grow up. Ha! Sure, there are perks, but if only we could savor the younger moments; times when we got called for dinner, showed up and ate and then scampered off to hours of play before bed. And we could actually sleep without any problems going through our minds. Okay, maybe we were concocting silly problems, like what if I have to go grocery shopping with Mom, or even bigger, why do I have to get a hair cut Saturday? Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to visit those times?
Isn’t it nice that we can think back on wonderful memories? Times that make us smile while staring out to space. Images that appear faded in our mind, sometimes sketchy at best, but, they’re all there. It amazes me that our brain stores these moments. Today I have the privilege to write a bit before going to work. I’ve turned on Northern Exposure for background noise, and instantly I’m at ease. Comfortable with my surroundings. You see, after I graduated from school I’d watch this show every day before lunch. It was such an easy time for me. I was going part-time to college and working as a nanny. Life was sweet. The biggest obligation I had was to change a diaper, feed a baby, and do a term paper. The world was happy, or so I believed because I was.
It’s great being able to surround ourselves with memories. My best friend sometimes sits and closes her eyes with a huge smile on her face. I ask, where are you? She sighs and tells me. Sometimes it’s Florida on a beach, sometimes it’s on her trampoline outside her childhood house. She finds peace with these memories. Today I find peace with Northern Exposure at 11:00!
My friend and I on FB sometimes talk about how we miss that time or how we wish we could go back. I would say I miss the good times and not the bad. He wouldn’t change a thing but there was one thing I would have. Otherwise it would truly have been the happiest time of my life. Those memories of that time were so important to me I based a novel on it. And I still think about that time and find different ways to write it.
How awesome is that? That you wrote a novel based on it! Now there’s no way it can be forgotten:)