Mentalechoes

You know it’s sometimes easy to forget that there was a life we had before the present day and that there were people in it that we shared ourselves with during that time. Everything that happens in the present, always casts a very big shadow on the past, to the point where it’s only really a year or two of our lives that we can remember from our daily perspective.

Over the weekend, on a spontaneous fling, I pulled out seven of my photo albums that have captured memories going all the way back nearly 18 years. Most of the albums are in some jumbled order, but there are always one-off shots scattered in amongst everything that really are just still frozen moments in time saved from being lost. I had forgotten just how wonderful a life I have during the last decade; there were pictures of parties and groups of friends I have made and said goodbye to; scenery; tourist attractions; spaces I had lived in, and past lovers. I had forgotten all about them until recently. But upon seeing the photographs again I was reminded of all these exceptionally happy days I have been lucky enough to have, and of the lucky life I have been blessed with.

I can see now that it is important to keep a perspective on life and realise that there is more to everything than ‘now’. There will be a tomorrow that becomes today, and then soon after that tomorrow will become yesterday, and we will be looking towards a new tomorrow to become today when the sun rises. The buddhists call this concept - Annica - the impermanence of life; all things change. Nothing shows you how true this is more than a photo album.

Padwanna!