Not a big moment like a wedding or a graduation. Just a banal scene: a laugh with someone, a silent stroll, a song playing in the background…
Sometimes I think back on things like that, and it makes my heart ache a little. You too?
Not a big moment like a wedding or a graduation. Just a banal scene: a laugh with someone, a silent stroll, a song playing in the background…
Sometimes I think back on things like that, and it makes my heart ache a little. You too?
Comments
Walking the dog with my sisters. We all hate it and try to pass the leash to each other, but some of my best laughs and conversations are from a 10-20 minute stroll down the street with them.
Images of the times when I was a kid and realized that I was alive and me, looking out the window of a car at a gas station, a commercial on the TV, my shadow on the ground in a field or looking up at the clouds. They don’t make me ache though, just random pop ups at times. I’d like to know what you’re very first memory is.
As a child, the family cat felt like the only entity that cared about me. I doted on her. I recall making her promises to save her life at the expense of my own if a natural disaster were to occur. I felt more loved by that cat than I did by my family.
So it should be no wonder that I’m a crazy cat lady now with 3 kitty cats.
One of the first good friends I met when I moved to a new city had moved away but was back for a visit, we were just hanging out downtown, smoking and talking, some of his other friends happened to walk by so we were hanging out with them too. I didn’t think much of it but it was a nice memory. I took a photo of a pigeon on the ground and the shot had my friend’s leg in it by accident.
We parted ways with plans to meet up again next time he was in town. But he ended up disappearing and was found dead a couple weeks later. The only photo I ever took of him was a dumb picture of a pigeon with his leg in the corner. I just wish I would’ve taken a picture of his face instead of the bird, but I had no way of knowing. I’m just glad I have at least one photo from that day, it was such a calm and peaceful afternoon. I still don’t know how he died, I never knew his family or anything so I only found out he went missing through people commenting on his fb wall, and his family asked for privacy when they found his body so I didn’t feel right about reaching out.
I had the opportunity to spend a night with some of my friends, a long time ago. It was a nice full moon night and it was summer, pretty hot. We just sat outside, together, and listened to music and talked about nothings. It’s a very beautiful memory to me and I hold it dearly.
I was driving my brother back to the airport an hour away. We left at sunrise, and the sky was so pink that day. Leaving the city on a curve in the highway to the wide open fields was lovely. It was spring and we had the windows down and were playing a country song I don’t remember and it reminded me of childhood, which is such a massive thing for me because I had a really traumatic childhood. To be hit with memories akin to sunday drives in my small town and find it beautiful was incredible.
I remember a weekend that I woke up before anyone in the house and helped myself to a bowl of cornflakes and went back to my room and read an old readers digest and have a vivid memory of saying out loud “this gotta be the life”. Don’t know why i said it or what I even meant by saying it but it’s a random memory that comes across my mind sometimes when I’m doing absolutely nothing and say “this gotta be the life” and have a chuckle. It’s like an inside joke that only I understand.
Waking up in my bed with the sunshine streaming in during high school on a Saturday morning with the birds singing.
I sure do.
Still makes me laugh as hard as the first day I saw it!
Playing in the woods alone as a young child (before 9 yo). I was a solitary person from the very beginning and loved just laying in the leaves and watching the sun sparkle above.
I remember playing with my siblings and cousins growing up. No specific memories, just years of tag, flashlight tag, freeze tag, exploring the woods and having fun 😊
That makes me think of a vivid memory of my wife, shortly after we started dating. We lived on the same block when we met (even though we randomly met online).
A week or so into dating, I ran into her on the subway platform. I think it was the way seeing her broke through me being spaced out not really seeing anything just passively scanning for any risks. I did a double take when she smiled at me and that smile and the dress she was wearing and all is burnt into my mind.
My son’s nervous laugh and the way he would shift his feet… I miss him. May he rest in peace…
I remember that one time I was sleeping at my (late) grandmother’s house. Whenever I could I’d sleep at hers since she lived alone and she was so precious to me I couldn’t stand the idea of her spending so much time all by herself. She’d had a tough life, her husband left her to live abroad and she raised her kids all by herself and etc.. And she was such a caring soul to all of her grandchildren especially me, since I was the oldest granddaughter she practically raised me alongside my parents.
Anyway, that one evening she made us dinner and had bought me my favorite snacks like she always does, we sat watching her fav soap opera after dinner and I started making fun of the cheesy scenes and acting and she was laughing along so hard I’ve never seen her laugh so genuinely in her life. I still think about that cozy evening with a bittersweet nostalgia, just knowing that I had brought her such joy just being there -especially on that evening- fills me with so much happiness. I miss her so much.
I think everyone does.
The last time I visited my mom, her husband needed to use the restroom and we went out to the car and were admiring a very nice, red sunset. She died the next Thursday.
It wasn’t a lot, but I visited my grandmother, probably around 2006, and on the way needed to go to the bathroom. I mentioned that I thought my eyes were turning yellow and she laughed harder than I had ever seen her laugh. I think because it was an offhand comment that I didn’t expect to land.
Speaking of my mother. She was raised by my great-grandmother and my mom used to tell me about a picture of a girl that great-grandma had over her bed. My mom used to hate that photo so much because she didn’t know who the girl was or why grandma would have thought she was so special to hang the picture up. (The picture was a print of the one on the left. She later inherited the photo and had it prominently displayed in our house. My brother has it now.)
riding in the back of my moms car as a little kid, on hot summer days i would often take off my shirt and i very vividly remember how the plastic of my car seat and the seat belt felt against my bare skin. it wasn’t necessarily a pleasant feeling in the moment but it sticks out in my mind as a pleasant memory
When I was 20 I came upon an unexpected festival on the river at the University I went to. There were lights strung up everywhere, food and people everywhere. I was one of those people that stayed inside all the time and never did anything fun but walking through those crowds with the entire atmosphere and the lights made me realize that was the life I wanted to experience instead. Even if it was outside of my comfort zone, it’s nice to be among people even if not directly interacting with them
Playing double rope with the neighbors while having a transistor radio playing all the hits in the background. Sweet summer days.
Watching Get Smart (series) with my dad when I was a kid.
” it’s a show about nothing”
Staring out the window on car rides to Grandma’s house. What makes me ache is how, due to life circumstances, how little I see of that side of the family now, and the guilt I feel for not really wanting to.
When the first guy I ever fell in love with at 16 finally kissed me. We dated in high school and broke up after a month or so, but remained friends.
We were 21, playing pool and having fun. I was awaiting my turn to play when he suddenly got up, came and stood between my knees, just looked at me… and kissed me. I saw stars. My heart pounded. My body flushed with warmth. My hands went around his neck and I kissed him back with everything I had.
Imagine my disappointment that he didn’t remember it because he was drunk.
I used to sit on the porch with my grandfather; he’d have a beer while I painted my toenails. He got a kick out of some of the colours I’d choose. I miss that so much.
One summer morning when I was ten I was lying on my back on the grass, looking up through our old weeping willow that I had built seats in. The sky was blue with a few beautiful clouds. The birds sang. The warm breeze blew through my hair. A small plane drowned by overhead. And there was no school.
I remember thinking “This is the perfect day.”
Every once in a while I think of that moment again and it always brings me back to the carefree days of my childhood.
I was on the bus in a suburb of Tokyo and a woman came on in a gorgeous pink kimono and she was just so poised and beautiful, and the sun on the silk was magical and the pattern was so springy, but I didn’t know anything other than ‘pretty’ in Japanese, much less how to tell her respectfully so I just quietly admired her on my ride to class.
None of my most treasured memories of people are based around holidays or birthdays or events. I mostly remember the times spent running errands, or shooting the breeze on a beautiful evening, or eating fast food in the car. Those were the times when we spent hours talking about nothing at all, which often led to some of the most revealing and profound moments we ever shared. Today most of us pass that time by staring at our cell phones, so I hope the younger ones find some equivalent situation they can use to just be with the ones they love.
God, I’ve had a beauty filled life. Yes, many.
Last year I spent a year abroad in Australia. One day I took an evening stroll in a park in Melbourne next to the river, turned my back around and looked at the skyline. The evening sun was making the big skyscrapers shine like a diamond, the river glowed, the birds were chirping. Idk why but I had such an inexpressible feeling, full of happiness, pride, gratefulness, something hard to explain in English for me. In that moment I suddenly realized that I made it, I finally felt home in a foreign country. I felt like Melbourne was my city now, my place to be. I just got goosebumps while writing this
Honestly, the moment I realized that these memories would be my favourite, I have really started to try to focus in on little nothing moments.
A good example: two of my friends got married 2 years ago and we developed quite the international community (we all worked in hostels together). With the end of covid/lockdowns, people were keen to travel to the more remote wedding location, but also now I can say that a lot of those people are moving on with life and couldn’t make the same trip today. The wedding had people come from all around the world and there were a few moments where we were just hanging out in a room together or doing the dishes, or figuring out where to get lunch from (etc, etc) that I just took a moment to revel in because I knew we’d all likely never be in one place at one time again in our lives.
I definitely had one of those moments during the pandemic. About three months in to the stay-at-home order, I was so sad that I was unable to hug my brother (we’re both in our 60s so it shouldn’t have been a big deal but it started wearing on me because since we were little kids we’ve been very close – we live in the same town, talk every other day or so, text basically daily, and see each other at least once a week.
One day he was dropping something off at my house and I told him how much I missed hugging my family. So we stood outside with our masks on, and put a queen size top sheet over his head (as if he was a Halloween ghost), and I hugged him really hard. It was an incredibly sweet moment (about five minutes, actually), that made me cry. It was just a hug but it meant so much to me and it’s the hug I will never forget.
Everyday
I have a singular memory of my great grandfather. He paid for my mother and I to attend the funeral of my great grandmother and I was seated next to him at the reception. There’s 2 things this man loved more than being a lawyer: pranks and children.
I got to watch this man casually detach his dentures in the middle of eating and spit them into his mashed potatoes like he had no idea how to keep them in his mouth. Being only 6 at the time I definitely had a good laugh at a 96 year old man casually spitting out his teeth like he knew I would. One of my great grandmother’s friends yelled at him for it the way his wife would.
This old black man used to tell us stories at work of all the crazy stuff he had been through. His stories pop in my head a lot, most I wouldn’t retell. He was a dirty old man, he said he would invite the neighbor lady over and give her a backrub till she fell asleep then he would get his rocks off. He said he stuck his finger in her butt one of these times and “pulled out a lump of shit” on his finger. So literally that pops in my head like once a week and I laugh to myself R.I.P Al K you crazy motha fucka
Almost all of my memories are like this.
One of my first memories is of waking up right before dawn and looking out the window at the street sign across the street. It was yellow and warned drivers that there was a deaf child in the neighborhood.
Another memory is of going to a fancy restaurant with my friends when I was in college. The building had fancy lacy concrete blocks and blue stained glass.
One: My dad laughing in the kitchen.
Two: driving a rental car by myself through the Arizona desert and crying because it was so beautiful and my heart felt like it could explode from contentment.
Laying in bed in the late morning of a lazy Sunday; my two kids when they were 3/5 having romped all over, climbed my head, been tickled to tolerance levels. I remember feeling my youngest’s wrist that still had the remnants of that bracelet of baby chub, my oldest draped across my chest, all tuckered out and in a good mood- I knew this was one of the best moments of my life and hoped I’d always remember it perfectly. And I do, how warm their little arms were, the smell of the tops of their heads, their little kid giggles, the quality of the afternoon light…it’s a memory I return to again and again.
I remember sitting in the sun porch with my childhood cat. It was nighttime and raining. I was petting him and telling him how much I loved him while he purred, and I remember thinking, “I’m going to remember this moment forever.” Well I was probably about 10 at the time, and I still remember it like it was yesterday. In my 20s now, and my special boy is long gone.
Growing up, most of my friends are much more unfortunate than my family, financially. I know this because they lived in a “makeshift homr” while I lived comfortable under a built home. I grew up with so much “freedom” now thay I’m older, is now being processed as neglect. So I’ve always searched of a “safe place” and it was never my home.
The memory of me napping and eating at my “poor” friends house evem when they had nothing, we wpuld jist eat dried fish, with rice and eat at the same time. Andnit was one of the memories that I felt most loved. I felt like I was taken care of more at someone else’s house with more understanding than mine.