Memory

     There are times when our memories are not as good as they should be.  We forget appointments, to take our medicine, even the names of our children.  I’m not talking about a serious mental problem or dementia or something like that.  I’m just acknowledging the fact as we get older our memory sometimes is a little faulty.

     Have you reached that point in your life where you get out of your chair and walk into another room to get something or do something, then once in the other room you forgot why you went in there?  Only to find yourself returning to your chair and as soon as your rear hits the cushion you remember why you got up!

     You can’t go shopping any more unless you prepare yourself a list, because you will leave the store and NOT have all the items you intended to purchase.  And usually the one item you forgot is the one that was your main reason for going to the store in the first place.

     Now you don’t want to admit it, but if you are getting to that certain age, and you know what age I’m talking about, you know it has happened to you.  There are those moments when, in the middle of a sentence, you will forget your thought completely.  It may take you several minutes to remember what you were talking about, if you remember at all.

     And there are many other such situations that you will probably recall where the memory just fades at the most inopportune times.  Names in particularly will not come to you when you want them to.  You’re shopping, etc. and you run into an old school mate, or work mate and their name just does not come up into your memory.  You remember having these situations!

     Now that you have admitted that these things are happening to you, how can we explain just the opposite problem that many of us deal with?  We don’t want to think that we could have this problem but we do.  We meet someone we haven’t seen for a long time.  It might even be a family member!  And the first thing that jumps into our mind is the BAD thing they did to us MANY years ago. 

     We can’t forget it.  It is as if it just happened a few days earlier.  Or maybe it’s something we feel they SHOULD have done and didn’t!  We’re not ever going to forget it.  And we’re not going to let them forget about it either!

     It may be our selective memory, but we remember anyway.  We can recall practically EVERY detail of the situation:  Where we were.  What we were doing.  Why it has bothered us so long.  It feels like we have this terrible wound that we keep opening up and pouring salt into and we can’t (or won’t) let it heal.

     That’s the problem with our memory.  It doesn’t work very well when we want it to, but it works too well concerning things that should be forgotten.  It just helps us remember that we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Some things should never be forgotten ---

I just don't remember what they are!"