"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."
Walt Whitman (1819-92)
"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."
Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC)
And now, the current weather, from some random person we pulled off the street:
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Picture This
This week's Blogger Idol topic is Picture This.
re-call Function: transitive verb
1 a : to call back [was recalled to active duty] b : to bring back to mind [recall those early years] c : to remind one of : RESEMBLE
2 : Flipping through the scrapbook of your past
Memories
Light the corners of my mind
My mind stores my memories in pictures, snapshots of moments that burn themselves into who I am, what I am, and what I will be. Memories that go so far back that I can see myself sitting in a high chair, eating spaghetti on a winter's evening. I can remember seeing the Mickey Mouse show on TV and not being able to understand what they were saying.
I can remember going to Swan Lake in Sumter, South Carolina and looking up at a swan.
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were
There is a time in each of our lives when we are innocent, when the most important thing is to watch the road crew outside our window dig a hole, when we can spend an eternity watching ants. We run and capture fireflies in our jars, fascinated by their glow. Our days are filled with imaginings; we are heroes, cowboys, spacemen, superheroes if we like.
A bike is a motorcycle, a towel tied around the neck is an excuse to fly.
Scattered pictures
Of the smiles we left behind
And then comes the moment when the world hits us like a battering ram, and innocence is lost forever. Those moments scar us forever. Death, violence, wounding, we spend the rest of our lives bleeding in some way.
Our smile is never quite the same after that day.
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were
Our first loves, the first times we smile and the smile comes back to us, the first time we look into the eyes of a beautiful girl and they sparkle right back with magic. The butterflies in our stomach fluttering so hard we feel we could die of bliss.
We spend our lives trying to relive those moments.
Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
Remember the good times, the sunny days, the fall breezes, the spring flowers and the beautiful snowy mornings. Forget the aches, pains, arguments and dissapointments. Wash over them with the rosy tints of the years.
Life was good, it really was.
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me - Would we? Could we?
Turning the pages in my mind, would I do it the same way? Regrets always have their places, but all in all, yeah, it's good. Even the worst moments seem to have turned into blessings.
Could I do it again? I am not sure I would be brave enough, if I knew what lay ahead.
Memories
May be beautiful and yet
What's too painful to remember
We simply to choose to forget
Some moments I wish I could erase from my mind, the death of a cat, the crash of a car, the phone calls that changed my life forever. The letters I wish I never read, the places I wish I had never been, the people I wish I had never known, the moments so terrible I can't even bear to mention them.
We hurt, we grow, and we go on.
So it is the laughter
We will remember
Whenever we remember
The way we were
Waves breaking on a pristine beach, sun streaming through early morning clouds, fresh breezes caressing my face, God's presence all around me. Those are the moments that define me, the good ones, the treasures.
The smiles, the laughter, these are the important things to leave behind and to take with us, for they are the only thing of value on the Earth.
(lyrics for "The Way We Were" from The Columbia Pictures, Rastar Production "The Way We Were", as recorded by Barbra Streisand, composed by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Marvin Hamlisch)
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
Albert Schweitzer (1875 - 1965)
