The Things Forgotten

It is often the faintest memory, the one that is tucked away in the quiet recesses of the mind, hidden from everyday thoughts, that are perhaps rarest and the purest.

A childhood anecdote, a memory minor to you then, but carries a deeper meaning now. The joy you remember, at the slightest glimpse back into something you let linger in your mind, and yet simultaneously, fades away.

Things you would never think of again, had it not been for a probing reminder out of the blue, or a gentle nudge to rekindle a faint memory.

We think in puzzle piece thoughts, forgetting the whole picture as we add to the ever-increasing picture of our lives in the world.

A corner piece here, a middle one there.

Yet it is never fully complete.

We can retain so much, and yet, we tuck things away, never to think of them again.

A new piece added in, now forgotten, as we study the next one, fitting it into place.

A treasure trove of sentimentality resides in each individual, in its most safekeeping compartment.

For the mind carries existence, and all the memory it entails, and the spirit reaps from the pleasures therein.

Writing is a means of remembrance. Capturing emotions and thoughts before they slip away into forgottenness, and perhaps down the road of the unrevivable.

To write is the gift of memory, probing the mind to respond and reflect. To rejoice in where you've been, and to share that with another soul.

Writing to record and recollect a life, means the life continues long after the words are written. A constant correspondence of things that are long past, yet not fully slipped away, as the things we forget.

Write to remember. To revive. To reflect. To respond. To realize what you want to remember, the things best not forgotten.

''Memories have huge staying power, but like dreams, they thrive in the dark, surviving for decades in the deep waters of our minds like shipwrecks on the sea bed.''

-J. G. Ballard

''Memory is an autumn leaf that murmurs a while in the wind and then is heard no more.''

-Kahlil Gibran

''How quickly things disappear: in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the memory of them.''

-Marcus Aurelius

“Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.”

–Kevin Arnold

''Most of our childhood is stored not in photos, but in certain biscuits, lights of day, smells, textures of carpet.''

-Alain de Botton

''Even though our lives wander, our memories remain in one place.''

-Marcel Proust

“The past beats inside me like a second heart.”

–John Banville, ''The Sea''

''I am hopelessly in love with a memory. An echo from another time, another place.''

-Michel Foucault

''Memories, you see, hurt. The good ones most of all.''

-Harlan Coben

''Writers, like elephants, have long, vicious memories. There are things I wish I could forget.''

-William S. Burroughs

“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget.”

–Joan Didion

“Memories are the treasures that we keep locked deep within the storehouse of our souls, to keep our hearts warm when we are lonely.”

–Becky Aligada

''Memory is the diary we all carry about with us.''

-Oscar Wilde

''Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.''

-L.M Montgomery