Memories – what really is their significance beyond simply being memories? When they go beyond only being memories and take hold of our present, when their reality should stay in the past and only linger in the present as memories…but perhaps sometimes we just don’t have the will power to keep them in the past.

Does it ever scare you that your best times in life may be in the past and that you may never experience life as fully or happily as you did at one time? What if the best is already past and not yet to come? This is a scary thought that sometimes hovers over me as I struggle to expel it because I know full well that the past is past and cannot be brought back.

What about how memories relate to the present? I mean, personally, I think we tend to think of the past and relish in memories in a way that immortalizes them and makes them seem better than the events actually were. When I think of certain memories, I associate a distinct feeling with them, and I would do anything to experience that feeling again in the present. But maybe I did not experience the feeling in that moment in the past, but am experiencing it more vividly now in this present moment as I look back on it. Therefore, the memory in the present is almost better than the memory in the past. So perhaps I should not lament the memories and wish they return, but rather relish in the present and enjoy the recollection the memories. Also, in this way, our memory of the past is a false one if it does not accurately represent how we felt in that moment in the past, but rather represents how we are experiencing the memory of the past in the present…