NOSTALGIA!

“A wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition” (Merriam – Webster).

Within the last few weeks, I have attended my family reunion and met up with 15 of my 21 remaining first cousins on my father’s side, attended a book signing of an author friend that I knew for many  years before she moved to the Northwest, had lunch with a dear college friend,  and experienced a day of visiting at my sister’s with another cousin and husband from the West Coast. Each of these events brought about its own memories of things gone by, laughter in sharing the memories, mine and the others involved, and a few thoughts about longing for those times.

I would have to say that I am deeply grateful for those memories and am experiencing a desire for ‘more’ of this in my life. Maybe it has to do with the age and space I am in and the loss of a brother within the last year. It encourages you to cherish each day a little more and want to work positively toward continuing to create life defining memories that perhaps a few years down the road will bring  ‘nostalgia’ and JOY.

“Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective and maybe objectivity” (Robert Morgan, American poet, short story writer and novelist).