I have always liked Bob Dylan's song, "Precious Memories." If you want to hear Bob Dylan sing it, just click the link to that video at the top. I'll print out the lyrics, below.
The other day, having just heard the song, I experienced a phenomenon well known to those of us who are "getting older." I walked into a room and then suddenly realized that I had forgotten, completely, just why I had come there. I had a reason to go into that room; I was sure of that, but then.... what was it?
There are other manifestations of the same phenomenon: For instance, you might go to a work reunion event and spot a retired co-worker with whom you shared an office for over twenty years. What comes to your mind might well be this question: Who is that? What is that person's name? How come I know that person? Etc. If you are in the "getting older" category, you can think up lots of other examples on your own.
I decided to write up a thought I had about this ever more common experience. The blog posting you are reading right here, which I have titled, "Precious Memories - Fading Memories," is the result.
Naturally (and I think I might speak for almost all of us "older" types), the "fading memory" phenomenon that I have just described - and it does have many manifestations - is frustrating, and annoying, and (not to over-dramatize it, but to "tell it like it is") profoundly disturbing. Profoundly!
Those who experience this phenomenon find it easy to conclude that they are in the midst of early dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, and that they are, literally, "losing their mind." As I say, the phenomenon, when it appears, is profoundly disturbing.
So, here is my thought (and it is one of those "Keep on the Sunny Side" type of thoughts): Instead of hyperventilating when I have one of those "fading memories" moments, I am going to try to remember my own advice, shared more than once with the readers of this blog.
George Fox was right in telling us this:
Ye have no time but this present time, therefore prize your time, for your soul’s sake.
If we are advised, correctly, to live in the present moment (which is actually pretty hard to do) those "fading memories" experiences give us a chance to practice just how to do it.
My advice to myself (and to all of us, as we "travel down life's pathway") is to "keep on the sunny side of life!"
One moment at a time!
oooOOOooo
Precious Memories
WRITTEN BY: BOB DYLAN (ARR)
As I travel down life's pathway,
Know not what the years may hold.
As I ponder, hopes grow fonder,
Precious memories flood my soul
Precious father, loving mother,
Glide across the lonely years.
And old homes scenes of my childhood
In fond memory appears.
Precious memories, how they linger
How they ever flood my soul.
In the stillness of the midnight,
Precious sacred scenes unfold.
Know not what the years may hold.
As I ponder, hopes grow fonder,
Precious memories flood my soul
Precious father, loving mother,
Glide across the lonely years.
And old homes scenes of my childhood
In fond memory appears.
Precious memories, how they linger
How they ever flood my soul.
In the stillness of the midnight,
Precious sacred scenes unfold.
Copyright © 1986 Special Rider Music
I like this one a lot, Gary...As we age it becomes abundantly clear that we are very temporary travelers on "life's pathways." As John Lennon put it, "life goes on within us and without us." But life does go on.
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