What it's all about

I've recently had reason to start taking stock in my life and paying attention to things and people around me. This is not to say that I've never had reason, but let's just say that I've started listening more. That said, I've begun to look around, at people, places, things, experiences and have tried to place these all in their own spaces in my life. If you try and take a larger, macro-view of your life all at once, it's likely you'll be overwhelmed. So we categorize all the pieces and stack or pile them in place, usually chronologically, with the hopes that at any given time when we want to revisit that experience or feeling gained from the experience, it's right there in our memories, like a card catalogue.

Wouldn't it be amazing if that concept actually worked? Say you had a particularly great time one day doing something really cool. You could just scroll back in your mind and practically re-live the entire experience all over again. This is probably why we take pictures or recount stories with others: so we can continue to tell ourselves what a great time that was or look at a picture and try and bring back the feeling we had that day. Maybe this works for some of you, but I've lost that ability.

I've been thinking a lot lately about my life just a few months ago. I had started my current job and had been there just long enough to start making some great friends. We'd all just returned from a trip to Puerto Rico, on Mr. Dow and things were just going great. Now, I'm not saying that things aren't going great now; they are. But I've come to the conclusion, looking back on this period of my life, which really just happened, that things aren't the same. No single moment in time or experience is ever the same as the one before it or the one right after it. They're all different, some with different people, some in different places. I'd be lying if I said I'm not sad about the fact that I'm unable to transport myself back, even if only in my memory, to these various points of time in my life.

I guess my point to all this rambling here is that you've really got to enjoy what's going on while it's happening. Your memories are amazing and one day will prove extremely valuable, usually a day when you're not trying to conjure up that first kiss or the feeling of getting a new apartment, whatever the exciting time may be. So enjoy it all now. It may be that tomorrow is just as good or better, but there's no use hoping for that tomorrow. Enjoy today. Enjoy your friends. Enjoy the people you love and enjoy their love. Take everything as it comes to you and make the best out of it. Surely, there are amazing times ahead, and we've all had amazing times in the past. Everything should be an amazing time. That's what it's all about for me.