It’s funny how you don’t think of someone for years until an email from an old friend tells you they are gone, and then, just like that, her face and all the faces you both knew a thousand years ago come flooding in. All the late night conversations in kitchens over coffee, the parties that raged from one night to the next, the in-jokes, the mugging, the partners changing and the pet turtles in a bowl named for all of you, these things, that had lay buried for years in some recess of the mind, are once again vivid, and painful, and funny, and precious, and you can’t stop remembering and wishing you had added more pictures of her, of them, all these long years that are now irretrievable once again.
And so you resolve in your mind, your heart, that you will not let that happen with those still present in what remains of this short interval between light and dark. This, a vow made in the early hours as the sun sneaks its way into the world.
Leonard Durso 
How well our memories serve us in times of loss. I am glad you are able to recall those good times; sounds like it was a blast.
Well we were young and full of life, and we thought, like young people everywhere, it would last forever. Now it lasts in memory until all who were there are long forgotten.
Yes, I remember those days.
This is very painful. I am so sorry for your suffering. This kind of emotional suffering and mental ruminations is felt as pain in the body.
Sometimes if you do something to ease the pain that is felt in the body, it can help. Pain relievers and something to help you sleep.
My thoughts are with you.
Love,
Annie💕💕
You are very kind, Annie. But the one thing I realize from writing that post is I should return to the US after I get Europe out of my system. My last decade or two should be near those I love and who love me.
How so seemingly easy it is for us to take so much (including our loved ones) for granted but, one day, they will not be there.
How so seemingly easy it is for us to plan on doing so much tomorrow but, one day, tomorrow will not come.
We should never take things for granted, but I think it takes having lived enough years and lost enough during them to fully understand that.
Agreed. Aging is a wonderful teacher!
It’s so
When life is tugging at me
Wishing l knew why
Wishing it was different
Wishing l was there
Memories of moments in time
God how I know this feeling
Life is not a control substance
If I could bottle it
trust me…….
This is why I was there to remember
In times of the harshness of reality
When l need comfort
And warmth
To remind me of the stolen moments that we shared
This touched me Leonard
Brought it all back
Just as it did you
As always Sheldon
Thank you, Sheldon. I’m still absorbing it myself.
So sorry for your loss. Memories sustain us….take us into melancholy times. Photos keep our loved ones frozen in time….never to grow older than the last time we saw them.
That is so true. I only wish I took more photos when younger.
We did not have the cell phones at our sides, to snap quick pics so easily back then.
I often have wished I had more photos of certain people from the past too. But photography was not as easy as it is now.
Remember those flash cubes? That will date whoever remembers those.
I still can picture my father saying “hang on..don’t move” while we were holding our pose, as he popped off the flash cube tower and popped on a new one.
Before that they were just individual flash cubes.
And yes…..I am trying to get your mind to focus on a picture of something else…..
Much love and empathy,
Annie
Thanks. I appreciate that.
Amazing post, I could feel the raw emotion.
Also (if you like to join): Three-day quote challenge. You can check the rules in my post 🙂 http://sauj4.com/2016/01/05/daily-quote-challenge-13/
Thank you. I’m in Antalya now and havin problems with my laptop but when I get that sorted out, I’ll check your site. Right now just using my iPad and it’s not conducive to blogging.
My condolences on the loss of your friend.
Thank you.
Sorry for your loss, memories are precious.
Thank you. It is always more of a shock when they are so unexpected
A good reminder. Sometimes, we lose solve and have to resolve. Onward.
That’s certainly true
Wow. I couldn’t even begin to think about what that is like.
Thanks. It is never easy.
Not at all. You are a trooper.
Aw, you’re too kind.
Indeed, we were young and thought ourselves to be invincible and infallible. But alas and alack twas not true and all things we learned along the way do come to an end. And we were so wrong about so many things. Those were the days and as you said, they were indeed vivid and painful, funny and precious. 🙂 ❤
a vow unable to fully achieved, given human nature (whatever that is, if it is anything at all) and the nature of memory and consciousness, the immediacy of the present always demanding attention just like ‘the sun sneaking its way into the world’. Great post.
Thank you.
Very relatable. I also think that the vow is like a cycle. You make this vow and you try to stick with it, it lasts for days, maybe weeks. And then something happens to make you forget about this vow, someone might annoy you and the vow disappears until then next unfortunate event which brings it back into the forefront of your mind as if it never left!
I might write a follow up post to this and link this post as my inspiration if that’s okay!!!
Thank you for your thoughts on this and I would l love to read your follow-up. Link away.
Hi! I’ve written a follow up on my take of your post, https://ninaevangeli.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/a-cycle-of-promises/ I’ve linked your post at the end so that people can see my inspiration!
I like your poem and commented on it. Yours in some ways is much sadder than mine.
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