Sunday, April 15, 2007

Moving on and wondering ...

what is in the air at the moment?!! seems that there are lots of people experiencing dramatic life changes around me ... most of them painful. I don't know what is behind it all, or if they are simply coincidental, but i sure hope it all stops soon!

over the weekend i took part in an ashes scattering ceremony ... the weather turned out much better than expected so we were able to do it on the water at one of my stepmother's favourite childhood locations. it was very emotional and quite hard for many of those present, but provided a degree of closure - and the ability to begin to move on with life.

I loved connecting with the men of my family again - my brother and my father, who i see too seldom. One day I will persuade them all back to live somewhere near me!

I also had an insight into appreciating something that we all too often (we meaning I) take for granted - having a reliable memory. Surrounded by older family members and hearing the same stories repeatedly, i truly understood just how valuable it is to have good recall of not only what is going on right now, or who we have just told a certain story to, but also of our more distant past.

I love that older people (in their 70s or more) have such a wonderful recall and so many stories of their own childhood experiences. Not for the first time i have a desire to record those memories before it is too late.

3 comments:

moi said...

I love listening to the stories of our elders.Just the other day though, I was thinking about my own trove of memories and how they may never be heard due to my stingy reclusive behaviours.Sometimes I wish that I could share more freely. I'm very glad, SG, that the ash scattering and family time were both such rich experiences for you :)

Hageltoast said...

I wish i'd been a diary keeper sometimes, blogging is really the first time i have been a regular writer.
I will also miss the stories my nanna used to tell me about when she was young, and when i was too small to really remember.

silvergirl said...

hello darlings ...

nice to have your comments here. Toast it is fascinating to hear those stories, especially from people whose lives have spanned more than one century (not counting going from the 1900s to the 2000s, but the one before). then there are our own stories from our parents of how we were as little children. My son is fascinated by anything i can remember about his first few years - unfortunately he is dependent on my memory of that time which is getting kinda blurry (although helped by photographs).