Take a moment off your usual routine life today, and think over - Which have been the most endearing and magical moments of your life?
With this statement, I'm sure there are plenty of thoughts swirling inside your head,so just select any one at random...not unlike selecting one photo from a row of negatives. All different people, at different phases of life.
Now that the virtual memory is in your hand, think over the moment deeply. What does it hold within its own simple existence, that forces your brain to keep holding on to it, to keep it safely stashed in some corner, and bring it promptly to your notice at the first request? Who are the people who are present in this particular fraction of your life? Mathematically, those moments may form a very small part of your very long existence.. but something happened, and it gained precedence over many other moments.
Once you start relieving that moment, you will find yourself being transported.. to a totally new place, and yet once upon a time you lived there. Its hard to believe that just some thousand heartbeats ago, you were having this part of life in the present, and not as a part of your past. You were somewhat a different person then, you feel. Is there a connect you see, in the continuous evolution of yourself? The people in that memory - how do you relate to them in the ongoing craziness of every busy day today? Your priorities were different - did you achieve them all? What is it, that tickled you most? Does it still bring a smile? What was the most important activity for the day? Which person(s) did you look forward to seeing and talking to, the most? If these people are still gracing your present, are you grateful for their continuing existence in your life? Do you feel, that somehow in the bygone days, you were more flexible to opinions and less judgmental? Do you want to get to that carefree mode again? Do you think you've grown up, and yet not achieved in every department of life that there is, the perfect life, that was once envisioned through the long night chats with friends?
Lets shift to the people in the snapshot closely.. but this time, not to the ones that are in focus, but to the ones in the hazy background. How would you react to them, if you were to again live that part of life? Would you be more/less receptive towards them? Or would things remain the same as have been? Probably you were content enough with what you have around you, and hence want the image to remain untarnished. In this case, you can happily look forward to the future. You have no regrets!
But just in case, you feel things should have/could have been a little different, then bingo! You have just realized that things have not gone as expected. And herein lies the wonderful opportunity to reconstruct, and bring a newness to everyday. A reflection from the past will help you build a new you, and bring in changes which you've always wanted. So that, 5 years from now, when you look back, the memory image would be a perfect snap, with just the right amount of tones (read human emotions) - just like the way you wanted it to be.
For me, life is a continuous reflection on some of the most treasured memories, which I would never change. And yet, it becomes imperative to change today, and all the coming days, so that I can value my future, just like the cherished, carefully preserved past.
