Connection

Just how connected are we really to where we live, the friends we choose, the family we keep, the jobs we need.........?  I have wondered from time to time why our family has chosen to stay close to the place we have lived since 1968.  Not being from the south originally, I still have the fondest memories of "the north".  Sledding, ice skating, watching out the window while the snow fell, enjoying the thrill of it all.  Having a father that was as much of a kid as we kids were, he loved to take us sledding.  It was the best times.  When we abruptly moved I remember the last memory was me standing on our next door neighbors porch, gazing at the field across the street soaking up all their was to see and hoping that I would never forget that memory.  I haven't.  It fades and some times what I remember is different that my siblings.  So, am I still connected to a memory or a legacy?  My mother's side of the family was from the north.  We still have relatives living there.  If finances and time were of no issue would I venture north?  Sure I would.  Have you ever lost a loved one that you had a troubled relationship with?  And sometime goes by and you begin to remember them as good, saintly even?  Well is that how our memories serve us?  Nothing stays the same.  Heck even the place where we live has changed, grown, expanded.  Roads have been added, buildings erected, some neglected.  But, there my memories. 

Look at the job you have?  Or the ones you walked away from.  Good or bad memories?  Another example of time whitewashing the bad.  In most cases.  Like a woman giving birth who thinks she will never forget that pain.  I was one.  Within a few years that too had been replaced with another child  or a better memory.  It's as if that is the gift we get.  We "get to" remember as we choose.  Get too being the operative words.  I suppose I could conjur up those bad ones.  But why?  Isn't it more fun to highlight the ones that bring the endorphins to the surface?  Don't we want and like to feel good about "fill in the blank"? 
Friends?  Some come for a season, a reason or a lifetime.  Think of that and go back and visit the years of those relationships.  Especially when you grow ... dare i say... older. 

I could keep meandering through this subject but choose to come to a close.  If you find one that is still painful..... take a good look at it.  Is there something you are still learning?  Is there forgiveness you haven't given?  We can make it whatever we want.  It's our choice.  And I love choices.