Making memories

I read recently about the phenomemon where it seems like time passes so much more quickly as we age. You know, when you were a kid, summer seemed to stretch out like its own entity. I have summer memories and images that are still so vivid, decades later. 

We would draw roads and businesses and houses on Grenadier Avenue, using soap bits.  We'd make our own all-kids' city. Bikes were cars. The garden hose was a gas pump. Maple tree whirlygigs were money. Leaves were food.

We made our own summer school, made up of 60% reccess, 15% gym, 10% art, 10% reading, and 5% math. At night, we'd play ditch, and flashlight tag and kick the can. Having fun became our full-time jobs, and we excelled.

As I sit here and type this, I can barely remember what I did last summer, besides work. Or even what I did two weeks ago. (Seems like just yesterday, Amanda was graduating from high school, and yet that was over a year ago.)

According to this book- the name of which ironically escapes me- its not that time really does speed up, or even that our memories get that much worse, it's that new experiences are more visually interesting to us and thus"stickier", meaning those experiences are like video tapes that are more likely to stay with us. And when you're young, more of the things you do are new, simply because you haven't gotten around to doing them yet. As adults, our lives often center around routine and thus become more efficient, but less memorable. We set our alarms the same time every day, get ready for work, drive the same route we always drive, etc.

I think its important to take the time to take a new road every now and again, figuratively and literally. Maybe that's one of the reasons I enjoy cooking; I rarely follow a recipe, so each time it's a new result and new experience.

Travelling and camping- two types of experiences that are dissimilar- also seem to have a way of slowing time down for me and staying with me.

I can remember details of camping at El Rancho Manana in detail; the sound of Heidi's margaritaville blender, all the kids coming back from the lake and the  dance with stories, sitting around the campfire until late at night,  and how great the turkey tasted. And I remember every camping trip; not just the annual college friends trek, but every year at the cabin, and every State Park I ever stayed at.

Travel does the same for me; I know the green patchwork hills of Ireland, the way the colors of the Experience Music Project buiding change as the clouds move across the sky, the reflective feeling of  the Jefferson Memorial in DC at night, the small of the salt air in Northeast Harbor, and the jewel-like sand of the La Jolla beach. These experiences lasted a few hours or a few days at most, and yet those moments where I was truly present, lingered longer and have stayed.



So here's to us. May we rememeber to try new paths and to savor new experiences, and truly appreciate those gifted moments we have in our short time on earth. Spend your time wisely and well, and as much as possible, surrounded by those you love, and with those whom you are meant to serve.