Some blog posts I read this past week touched me.
Childhood memories of the kitchen Kitchen memories - we all have them, blogs Elizabeth Havey. If we are fortunate, we have those memories of the kitchen where we grew up, and the kitchens we spent our adult life in.
May you never give up on what you enjoy says an Australian blogger. She quotes Abraham Lincoln's quote ""In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years". I can only hope I can do the things I enjoy for the rest of my life, be they spending time outside in a garden, taking pictures, or reading for pleasure.
"So many things are left to memory", says Carol Cassara in a blog post about how nothing in permanent. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust it's the way of all things. All creatures. And all people".
So why am I blogging about this today?
Perhaps because I am realizing so much of my life now exists only in memory. I walk in our local mall in bad weather, and the spaces are full of the ghosts of retail past. Montgomery Ward. Bradlees. Kinney Shoes, which was my favorite shoe store. Sears is gone (they are down to 12 stores in the mainland U.S).
Everywhere I go, I see memories in my mind. The empty lot that used to be a McDonalds. The elementary school my son went to which is now a senior citizen apartment building. The building where I used to work years ago which now houses a non profit agency that provides services to older citizens like me.
One day, I will only be a memory, too. And, one day, even that will be gone.
But, until that day, I intend to have a good time. I have sunsets to enjoy. Flowers to document. Trips to take. Chocolate to eat. True, I feel myself slowing down.
But don't say I'm too old for anything. Behind that grey hair and wrinkles is an active mind full of curiosity.
As the saying goes, there may be snow on the roof but that doesn't mean there isn't a fire in the furnace.
I've also thought about cutting way down on blogging. Several bloggers I know have either quit in the last year, or cut way back. I hope it is for good reasons.
Speaking of blogging:
I've blogged daily since May of 2011. In a way, my blog has become an online journal. It's a fragile journal, one that could go "poof" at any time if Google decides to discontinue the platform. But, for now, daily blogging serves my purposes. It's a journal I can look at any time I have an internet connection.
Aging with grace. It's what we can all hope for.
...I've never been graceful and I sure am not now.
ReplyDeleteI never was graceful, Tom, even as a child.
DeleteI'm glad i could be a tiny part of inspiring this post. It is so true, though. We are living more in memory now than ever before. Thank you for sharing your evocative thoughts (and my post!)
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for reading, too!
DeleteThanks for the reference to my post. I love this. I often feel what you feel. That is why we need to KEEP ON FEELING and LIVING. Hugs to you, my Friend.
ReplyDeleteBeth, hugs to you, too.
DeleteThose memories you have in familiar areas are why I call memories, "circles." I am the same way, I see the things that you used to be there.
ReplyDeleteI posted daily on my blog for years. Now it is three or four times a week. You see it with everybody else with the decreased number of people participating in the various memes. It seems that the overseas bloggers are picking up the slack quite a bit. I now post once or twice daily on instagram.
And I think we have lost lots of bloggers. It seems to be an older person's passion. Some people just go dark and I don't know if they have passed away or just tired of it all.
Yogi, I think we have lost many bloggers, too. I can worry about people I've read for many years and then suddenly nothing (yes, I do think about them!) I hope they will return one day just to say goodbye.
DeleteLately I've begun to think of my grandfather with regards to blogging. He had a CB radio that he used to talk to people all over with. My brother and I would sit with him when we were kids in the '80s. But looking back, CB radios would have had their heyday in the '70s. I think blogging is becoming that. It's still here, but people are falling away from it as newer social media has come in and shortened our attention spans (yet again).
ReplyDeleteI think you are right. And, in a way, it is too bad. My attention span is too short as it is, and it didn't used to be like that.
DeleteI certainly hope Blogger would be archived somewhere, even if we can't post anything new. Mall shoe stores... I was telling my son how the had windows set out from the doors, with the shoes displayed. You could look without even going in. Of course, they'd measure your feet, get the shoes, and put them on your feet too! My Sears closed here.
ReplyDeleteI joined a gym for the first time in my life, so I've life in me yet! New things!
Oh yes, shoe stores where they measured your feet. Hope you enjoy your new gym membership.
DeleteWhenever Drew and I are in the car he will point out things like “that used to be a movie theater” or restaurant or record store or whatever … so many changes around here! Yeah, we are getting old.
ReplyDeleteAnother fun thing is calling something by a name it hasn't been called in many years. Our local community college hasn't been named "Broome Tech" since 1971, for example, but some people still call it that.
DeleteAlana,
ReplyDeleteWell written! I can relate to every word you shared. I think it's amazing that you've blogged every day since 2011. Having a daily journal to read back on is fun. Your entries by far are excellent entries of your daily life or what's going inside your mind. Continue enjoying life your way while you can. None of us know what tomorrow will bring! xo
Truth, none of us know what tomorrow will bring.
DeleteI wish I had the fortitude to blog every day. I, too, miss Sears, Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances, and the Wish Book.
ReplyDeleteI miss all the catalogs (Sears, Montgomery Ward, etc). I loved reading them as a child, and dreaming.
DeleteI am now reluctant to post or to blog on any site that doesn't give me an option to back up all my data whenever I want to. Is that an option with Blogspot these days? Back up a copy of this blog, because you're right - any platform you don't control (and even those you do) are impermanent. Paper and ink are the most reliable, but they can't even withstand the ravages of fire, water, mold, and decay. They last longer than pixels, with a little care.
ReplyDeleteI feel everything you've written here. Sometimes, it makes me sad. Sometimes, I think that the most famous inhabitants of Pompeii surely felt insignificant and wouldn't exactly have wished to be remembered as they have been. :) So maybe it's not so bad to be "forgotten" so long as we live, touch a few lives in a positive way, and enjoy our chocolate. The rest isn't in our control. I'm sure there are powerful men and women of their day who are lost to history. Time will make equals of us all.
Holly, Blogspot does have a backup function but it imports as one big xml file and I have no idea what to do with it. I appreciate your comments and thoughts. In my religious faith it's taught that everyone dies twice. The first time is when your physical body dies. The second time is at the moment that person is remembered for the last time. We can all hope our time spent on earth has been a positive for our world and for humanity.
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