What to remember

I was talking to a friend this morning about memories. It seems to me that as I get older, how much storage space I have to remember stuff dimishes. Ok, perhaps the data has just exceeded the space.

In any case, I find that the stories I have to tell, are not dramas about how hard it was. They are not about the tragedies of being homeless, but instead about the people whose lives touched mine in a way that even today makes me smile and miss them.

I'm pretty sure that I could dredge up the stories about being afraid, about being in pain, about selling, and using drugs, about standing on the overpass wanting to jump, and I probably will have at least one of those in here - with a happy ending and the lesson learned.

But that's not what I created this space for. I wanted a place to learn how to put in words the people and places and times that have molded my heart into what it is today.

I guess that is what the memory storage process is for me these days. I choose which memories to keep and which to let go. I hold on to the good memories and only keep the lesson from the painful ones.

If I can do that, put into words on paper the stories of those whose lives touched mine, perhaps they will never be forgotten. Perhaps the lesson will spread to someone else that love doesn't live in a building with people in it - love lives in the people.