Memories, Windows into Tomorrow

Weeks of death and destruction of human life were all that my soul could take. I went back to the times in my life that held promise, not pain. Memories came flooding in for me. The kinds of things I recalled were those junctures in my life when I learned something novel. I think of beginnings often.

The beginnings, the setting out in a new place in time and space, can make one tremble at its offering. Sometimes what is offered to us seems too huge in scope, or too complex to conceptualize. Or sometimes, just sometimes, you find a path into it and discover it inside the beauty of its complexity. Newness has that capacity to shake us and make us take notice.

Years ago, my husband and I moved to a new place in upstate New York. He was a professor, so he professed (smile), and I wrote. We had been there for about nine months when one day he came home from campus and said to me, “Come out with me, you’ve got to see this!” It was misty out, from a spring rain. “Where are we going ?” “You’ll see,” he answered. Then he drove down one road to another, and another and finally said, “Look at this!” It was an area near the Erie Canal, we were on one side of the narrow ribbon of water.

A scene out of a painting. Pastel pinks and lavenders, pale greens and yellows draping the space before me. Springtime had always been the season of wonder for me. Here it was presented to me, as my very own living painting.

So that is what I am thinking today as spring is almost ending. I must take these ideations and begin something anew. My posts in this space, will reflect thoughts about writing, and where they are taking me.

Reaching back can propel you forward. It can revive your strength and focus your intention. Recollections of your beginnings, your setting out, hold your hopes and your dreams. And as you linger there, like a long walk on a quiet beach, you may find sea glass, pounded smooth by the salt and water, holding the reflections of a lifetime. Renew your soul, and it can become reborn in the promise that you discover. Memories, the windows into your tomorrows.