Remember how you spent a “typical” summer day when you were a kid?  Where were you?  Near an ocean, a lake, a beach, a forest, a mountain, your backyard or even your neighborhood?  What was the weather?  What types of clouds were in the sky?  What were the sounds?  Who were you with or alone?

Imagine how quickly you were able to go there and re-live those memories.  I have learned that I have the opportunity of taking many vacations throughout the course of a day if I choose, simply by “remembering.”  Several years ago I produced a project that involved my siblings.  I asked that they recall and write down as many of their childhood memories as they could remember.  They were to email their lists to me and I consolidated them along with each of our “first-grade” pictures.  I had them bound along with a collage of all of our childhood family photos on the cover.  We presented it to our parents as an anniversary gift, (not sure which anniversary it was).  They asked that we share these memories by reading each of our entries on a rotation basis.  We shared so many tears of sadness and joy.  It was such a captivating moment for us all to connect, if even for those few moments.  Amazing how perspectives of common occurrences were expressed.  I guess it’s like viewing a sporting event either as a spectator in the arena or watching it on TV. 

With each of us retaining a copy of the book, it has served as a life memory shared with our offspring to reflect and retain our family history.  Often times when my immediate family gathers: my parents, siblings and I; we venture down “memory lane,” in our conversations.  Our memories become somewhat faint as we have aged, (matured), especially with my parents.  Seems like our attempts of keeping past-times alive has more purpose but on an entirely different perspective.

Just the other day I shot a video of an interview I had with my brother atop Enchanted Rock in Fredericksburg, Texas.  I showed the video to a friend and he remarked how he could visualize the two “small boys” that appeared in us through our conversation.  Each of us, my siblings and I are twenty months apart.  My sister being the eldest didn’t really hang out with my brother and I and didn’t participate in many our games we shared as kids. However, through the years she has served as our “grandest” cheerleader in our life’s accomplishments.

Reflecting upon my childhood summer days and being so associated with those memories provides me with a sense of playfulness, warmth, compassion, love and understanding.  Understanding, that we are on this earth as a temporary assignment and making the most of each day before we can no longer remember nor have the capacity to create movement, develops an awareness of how precious and vital it is to create memories on a daily basis. If, by chance, you don’t have someone in which to share or create those memories with now, “journal,” an extraordinary life worth living is an extraordinary life worth writing about…