Moments of Time.

Hola and such.

As my vacation to Colorado looms ahead (as such there may be no post next week), I've been thinking about my previous trips there in.  We always enjoy our time there.  Great views, great people, and great atmosphere.  Fun times had or not had.  Laughs laughed and tears shed.  All of the weird and wacky and odd.

And as I tried to turn the way back machine on, I started realizing how odd the things are you sometimes remember.

The strong smell of cows drifting in from two towns away.  That time 12 billion moths tried to invade our home during the time we actually lived there, and had to duct tape all our windows and not used doors.  The great snowball fight of June.  The great snowball fight of August.  The 70 degree motorcycle ride in February.  Getting shocked so hard by static electricity that it left a mark.  Having a very large and bearded man stuff my man bits into a led "cup" during my fun times in radiation treatment.  Receiving my three medical tattoos.  Having squirrels practice parkour off my legs as they tried to steal my granola whilst hiking in the mountains.  Skiing into a park bench.  Accidentally being led into my first Black ski run and learning how to stop with my face.

It turns out if you bite down really hard into the snow...

Anyway...

There are so many memories.  So many things that pop out once you start to remember, or when something trips a memory long dormant.  Things you hadn't thought about since.  Things you had hoped to never think about again.  Things you were reminded about by others that you hadn't expected them to remember.

I think I told you the story already about the time I fell down Mt. Elbert, and while laying there recovering I was robbed of my food by a squirrel and a bird?  Well, there was another person there with me when it happened.  A nice man who was one of the supervisors of us kids.  I was 10 at the time.  He was much older.  That's how supervision works, or so I'm told.

Well, as coincidence would have it, I ran into that gentleman about a month ago.  I've only seen him a couple times since those young days.  I was down helping out at the summer camp and he showed up, saw me eating lunch, and came over to eat his and say hello.  He asked me how my parents and brother were, and after all the base pleasantries were done he asked me this:

"Hey, do you remember that time that one bird stole your apple after you fell down the mountain?"

He had a sly grin on his face.

"Do I remember?  How could I forget.  I can't believe YOU remember that."

I was pretty surprised he remembered that, although I suppose I shouldn't have been.

He then laughed.  "Ya, that was pretty darn funny."

I decided not to ask if he meant the bird thief or me falling.

Probably both.

But it was funny that he remembered that.  After all these years, and it's been almost 30 since that time, this man remembered that day.

As a response to seeing him, I was reminded of a time I ate at his house, and while sitting at his table, a spider dropped down from the ceiling and tried to snuggle up with me.  

I hadn't thought of that in years.  I'd only ever been to his house once, so I suppose there wasn't a large cache of memories to pull from.

But this caused me to think about something.

How many things like that are buried somewhere in my mind?  Little memories laying hidden in my brain waiting for the correct stimulus to bring them out?

That probably sounds like a stupid question.  You are probably thinking, "well, all of them."

And, of course, you are correct.

But that's not what I mean.

I'm talking about the significant moments.  The moments that stood out.  The moments that taught something.  The moments that COULD have taught something, but it's been relegated to the closet of our minds in favor of a more recent moment.

How many moments lay hidden in our minds, moments that formed us and made us who were are, for good or bad, that we have forgotten about?  And, if we could remember, would those formative moments lose their power over us?

Because if there is something that formed something negative within us, this might be important to discover.

I realized as I thought about the old memories that perhaps I have taken so many of these formative moments for granted.  That I haven't truly recognized their significance.  That I have let them fade instead of keeping them strong in my mind.

What would our lives look like if we didn't let ourselves forget the important moments?  Or maybe the more important question is, what if we actually recognized the important moments for what they were?

That last one is really the trick.  Recognizing the profound while you are in the moment.  Sometimes the profound jumps out at you.  Sometimes it passes by unnoticed.

As I started remembering all those old memories, I realized how easy it is to forget important things or to miss important things.

Don't let those formative events pass you by unnoticed.  Be aware always of the importance of what happens around you.

It might be, you know, important.

Have a great night.