A Moment of Reflection

Before continuing, take a moment.

Think of a seemingly ordinary moment from your life that has stayed with you.

It might be something that happened years ago.

Perhaps you remember where you were.

Maybe you remember the weather.

A person's voice.

A smell.

A particular song.

Something that, at the time, seemed completely ordinary.

Why do you still remember it?

What did that moment mean to you?

And has its meaning changed with time?

We often believe that memories preserve the past.

But perhaps the opposite is true.

Perhaps memories allow us to continually reinterpret the past through who we have become.

The person who experienced that moment years ago is not the same person contemplating it today.

And so the memory changes.

The moment remains.

But we do not.