Well for the most part "they" are probably right. You certainly can’t go back. Time quietly slips by while we barely notice it’s passing, minutes become hours, which turn into days and eventually years. Quietly slipping by until one day you realize just how much of it you've lost.
Although they may be right and you cannot go back, you can, however, revisit old memories and allow your mind to bring you back in time to a place you once knew.
It was 36 years ago the first time I stood on this rock overlooking this beautiful trout stream. For the most part, little has changed over the decades since my first visit. Yes, the trees that line the brook are bigger but it is just as I remember it to be all those years ago. The crystal clear water meanders and loudly babbles its way over rocks as it swiftly makes its way to its downstream destination. As I stood there soaking in the beauty of this place, I let my mind wander back to a day so long ago. Same rock, same stream, the same feeling of wonder at the beauty stretched out before me. The beauty of this place remains unchanged! Maybe you can go back! Maybe “they” were wrong I thought to myself! What do “they” know anyway!! This all seems so familiar! Like it was just yesterday I had discovered it for the first time!
As I glance over the water’s surface, fishing pole in hand, trying to predict where the best trout would be hiding, my eyes catch the image of my reflection on the smooth water’s surface. Although time may have stood still for my surroundings, it was clear in what was looking back at me, that time truly had raged forward. Where 36 years ago stood a slender, young man with the world at his feet. Now stood an aging man weathered by time and a far cry from the figure that first looked into that same pool. I stare at my reflection as if I were looking at a painting. As if it were a glimpse into the future and not the result of times relentless progression. For a brief moment, I am lost, wedged somewhere between the memories of yesteryear and the sobering reality looking back at me. Soon I smile at the figure looking back from the water. A smile filled with a lifetime of adventures, a life lived well and a life with few regrets.
Oh, what I could tell that young man of years ago. The adventures we were about to go on and the memories we would make. If I had told him that day so long ago, that we would remember for decades what lay before us and how important that place would become to us, I am sure of his response.
No, you can’t go back and I guess in many ways that may be a good thing. If we could, what things would we miss as time passed us by while we held on tightly and blindly to yesterday? What would we miss while looking back?
Never forget yesterday, try to live fully in each today and always look forward to the adventures that may await you in whatever tomorrows you may have left. Time will surely pass no matter what we do. So make it a priority to make memories as often as you can, memories that the future you will long to look back on!
