Forget the world for a moment. Forget the bills we have to pay.
Forget the taxes and the insurance, the rent, or the mortgage that’s due at the beginning of every month.
Forget the pile of things that weigh on your shoulders.
Forget about the bouts and the fights and the arguments and just for now, think about the one thing that makes you happy.
What is it?
What comes to mind?
I think this is a great question to ask.
When you think about the so-called “happy thoughts,” what are they?
If someone told you to go to your happy place, where is this?
What does this place look like to you?
Better yet, who lives there with you?
Anyone?
When we talk about our happy place or when we define our happy thoughts, I wonder . . .
What does this consist of?
Is this about food or the best meals you’ve ever had?
I can say that I have memories like this.
One of them is bookmarked in my heart.
I call this place Killer Shrimp. But wait, because that’s just me.
Where were your happiest memories?
Do you know?
Does any of this include the sunset or sunrise moments in your life?
Is this something that is centered around an instance or a moment in time?
I’m sure the answers are not so far away from you (or me).
But still, I have to ask.
What is your happiest moment?
Is there one?
Is there more than one?
Perhaps there are several, but some rate higher, which means there’s a tie for the best memory, which is a race to be ranked as “first place” but the sentimental values are so close that there’s an even tie because the moments race together at neck-and-neck speed in your heart.
If we are giving this moment the title of “First place,” has this always been your most favorite thing?
Or is this a position where categories allow for different moments to mean different things?
Or, as we go and see new things, new things take the place of old favorites, which is good.
I can see why this would be so.
I can see how we mature and evolve or we change.
That’s all that this means.
This is not to say that we lose our loyalty to old memories.
Instead, we allow ourselves to grow and evolve to the point where we are free to have new favorites and new experiences that bring a sense of joy and fulfillment to our lives.
Again, I say this is great.
Same as love comes with different variations and association, memories that rank in order come with different variations as well.
So, the question still stands.
What is your favorite moment?
What does your happy place look like?
When we talk about your happiest memories or your happiest moments, I’ll ask this again:
What are they? What do they look like to you?
How often do you recall them and how often do you regard them when you need these memories the most?
How do you feel when thinking about your favorite memories?
Are they pure?
Are they bittersweet?
Are they like tiny collectibles which we keep in different compartments in our mind?
Do you hold them closely?
Do you have a top five?
What about a top ten?
I ask this for a reason.
I ask because at our age or at least by now, we should have countless items on this list.
Each item that comes to mind is a memory that varies from being a child and seeing fireflies for the first time in early summer; or this can lead us to thoughts about the summer nights in July when the sky explodes with fireworks.
Or perhaps these are memories that take us back to moments of romance or times of personal intimacy.
Think about this.
Think about any time that puts warmth in your heart or a smile on your face.
Think about the wild times of outrageousness, like back when we were young and able to go fast as ever and move at top speed. We could run for hours and still be okay to go at it again the very next day.
We should have memories like a first and best kiss. We should have moments that date back to our early recollections with our Grandparents – like my Grandmother, for example and her soft voice, her soft hands, which had this touch that was more healing than any medication. I remember this well.
She had a bedtime story for every occasion which was soothing to me or calming, like a lullaby and gentle as her touch, loving and easily. I can say this is perhaps the most comforting memory of my early youth.
By now, we should have a countless list of memories that date back to our youth. Better yet, we should have memories that can be recent and because they are recent or young in age, these memories advanced in the place and have become primary. They rank above the old memories which, at one point, we thought that none of these could ever be topped.
We believed that this was the best – until one day, we experienced life at a new level.
Next, we saw light from a different perspective. We took notice of things that we had seen at least a thousand times before. We took notice of simply overlooked items, which we have seen throughout our lives yet suddenly, the sunset looks different to us now. Or the moon, for example.
The moon . . .
As in a full moon which we have all seen come and go each and every night; but at the same time, due to an occasion or due to a moment of beauty or perfection; and due to an assemblance of emotion, thoughts, feelings and as a result with a connection that links us to a memory when the moon was big and blue, or yellow, or even red – there is a time or a moment, or maybe an instance of a special regard, or perhaps there is a special place where all combines to a thought, and idea, a feeling and a memory, which clicks all of the buttons in the pleasure center – and just like that, if we think about this moment or place and time, we can find ourselves embraced in a memory of joy or behold, we can experience a sense of emotion that puts us at ease.
I love this . . .
I have only seen so much of this world.
I’ve not been so well traveled that I have seen the places of my dreams (at least not yet) however, I do have places and things and times and moments that will live with me forever. While honesty needs to prevail, I can say that I have seen the best places with the worst people and the worst places with the best people.
However and regardless of the reason or the whereabouts; or regardless of the times at hand or whether I am at peace with these people or not – honestly, there are, were and there will always be good memories from the past.
But this does not mean I cannot make better memories for my future.
Some memories are less centered in our mind. This can be so for countless reasons.
Some memories are tarnished or even ruined because of downfalls, and due to the aftermath or outcomes that ranged beyond (or even within) our control. There are memories that lose their place in the higher rankings in our memory. However, as one memory fades, there is an opportunity to build or grow or plant a seed to grow new ones.
This will allow us to create another memory. There is another “first time,” out there.
I know there is.
There is another moment or opportunity to invite the chance to have another moment that ranks high in our standings of first place memories.
As a matter of fact, this can be our goal from now on.
We can try to top our least best with our new best.
I wonder what life would look like if we lived it this way – always looking for our next best because we enjoyed our last best so much that our main goal and soul purpose in life is to constantly improve and enjoy every moment, no matter what, and by any means necessary.
I can say that I have these memories, though yes, I often lose track of them.
I often forget to “keep it simple” and instead, I sweat the small stuff, so-to-speak.
I can say that I have moments of brightness in dark times. I can say that I have seen beautiful things during the ugliest moments of my life.
I can say that I have seen triumphs amongst failure. I have met people who had nothing yet you would never know this because, to them, they have absolutely everything.
What are your most valuable memories?
What are your most beautiful moments of perfect intimacy?
What takes you back to a space in your mind which illuminates your heart with a sentiment of love, so deeply, and so greatly and with so much purity that your memory of this boosts this moment to a point that if you close your eyes, you can almost inhale this moment through your nose. You breathe in, as if you can smell the moment or inhale the essence, or as if you can take in the imaginary scent of say, a sweet smell that reminds you of a time, place, person or thing.
Mine is the ocean. I can smell her now -right now, in fact.
All I have to do is close my eyes and dream.
So, let me ask you . . .
If you were to have a moment that you could relive, what would it be?
Would it be a time when you were young and everyone in your family was still around?
What would you think about the ninth month of September?
What day would come to mind for you?
The Ninth month? The Ninth Day?
I wonder . . .
Or would this be another occasion that is divided by categories; whereas some of these categories would be family related and some of these memories would revolve around friendships, and some, more intimate than others. These are the memories that would revolve around moments of closeness or of a soft touch or of a time when nothing else could ever repeat this moment – like, say; I have an afternoon where the sight of two dolphins swimming inside the marina and happily leaping around between the boats was an added bonus to an already perfect day.
I can say that by now or from a mathematic standpoint, as of today, I have been alive to see 18,716 sunrises and sunsets.
Yet, there are only a few which come to mind when I say yes – these were the best of them.
I have had a morning on a balcony and an evening by the sea.
I have endured hardships and I have enjoyed moments beyond measure – and these were so much that they are forever engrained in my memory and in my heart, as if to be titled, “the best ever.”
I have seen great things and I have also seen things that have been better or even bested to become the highest-ranking memories from my past.
And that’s good.
This means life can be unending.
Nothing has to end if we choose to live for the moments which become our best moments of all.
And I mean this continually, as if to be always ongoing.
I do not say that you and I will always have good times.
I do not say that we won’t have bad days.
But as long as we live and breathe and as long as we try, we take care of ourselves, and as long as we put one foot in front of the other and as long as we look for that next best thing; I promise you that our happiness can be found – its’s out there. I know it is.
I know because the truth is our happiness is all around and everywhere.
We just seem to overlook or misplace these ideas. Hence, then we lose sight of our ability to endure. We forget about our rights to overcome, to stand, and to recover if we go down.
Nothing is perfect. I know it all too well.
I am far from perfect
and so are you.
But –
The fact remains that while we go through life and face our own personal trials, the truth is there are beautiful and amazing things that have happened to us.
Keep this alive.
Keep this in your heart.
There are times, like a morning when I walked on the beach and thought to myself, “nothing will ever look like this to me again,” which is fine to me because, above all, this was a moment that deserved its special nature to be placed in my heart and etched into my mind
(forever and ever).
There are meals that I have had that are and will always be unmatchable.
There are friends whom I will always cherish and moments of love between us which will live with me until my very last day – and even after my last day, these are memories that will stay with me throughout eternity; as if to say that they are unerasable because this and us and we are forever eternal – trust me.
I look to the east now –
To see the sunrise.
She is beautiful
And so is the sun.
So are the moments in my heart and the moments when I can say that my eyes shut and I see them clearly – beautiful as ever.
My dreams, soft as the gentlest touch, and most of all – I know this is love.
I know there are good and beautiful things.
I just need a good nudge sometimes
(to remind me).
The world is a beautiful place
and the fact that you’re here and that you are in this world is proof to me that yes, goodness exists, and beauty is never too far away from me –
So long as I have you.
My heart.
The Written Addiction 