Memories

Today I was driving in the car to work and I heard the song "Single Ladies" by Beyonce.  As soon as I hear that song I think of Capetown, South Africa, a beautiful lodge or the mountain side with incredible people.  It specifically takes me to a meeting room, like a lecture hall, and I see a skinny, 35 year old white women doing the dance moves Beyonce does to this song.  This lady is the founder of an amazing organization called Africa Jam.  I will be touched by that experience and her forever.  I love this memory of my trip to Africa and to Africa Jam.  It makes me smile and takes me back to those warm nights full of singing and laughing. 
There are many triggers in life that bring back memories.  I remember learning about all of that in Psych in HS and College, but the names are blanking on me now, some sort of amnesia??  Mr. Hovland would hear Paula Abdoul and that would immediately remind him of a bus. (i think)  Anyways...these memories are so amazing.  They teach us even after we have gone through the experience.  Yes, some memories are painful, and not something we want to re-visit.  Even with those memories lessons are learned, you see patterns, and clues to questions you may have that help you understand yourself and your situation more.  Over anything else in the world, I believe that our memories/experiences are our greatest gift.  We try to capture things in pictures, but that is art...we try to reenact or retell, but it never again is the same.  That is why it is so important to live in the moment!  If you don't you don't have them memories.  You wish time away, complain about another thing, and always want something more.  Living in the moment creates these memories, good or bad.  It is hard to live in the moment in our world; we always want to be more successful, get a head start, and try to get to the next best thing.  We suffer when we behave like this.  I do it ALL the time.  I am so bad at living in the moment and I have suffered greatly, but I am making a change.  I am not going to hold back my ideas or thoughts that could help someone because I don't have the time to sit and talk, because at 9 my favorite show comes on and I can't miss it.  OR I can't enjoy this 1/2 hour coffee break with my dad, because I have so many other things to do.  Live in the moment, know every minute and don't let everyday pass by with out being present.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future.  I live now.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The past is a good place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.  ~Author Unknown
The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post.  ~L. Thomas Holdcroft
When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.  ~Alexander Graham Bell