Time Folds

I have been noticing memories recently. They are my touchstones as I travel about this lifetime.

It is easy in many ways as I live near where I spent many years as a child. We moved a lot and so my life experiences are scattered about the world, which is also a gift. Snapshots of moments litter six of the seven continents, making me feel at home most anywhere on this planet.

There are ones tied to landmarks where I live. Conversations, events, return to tell their tales. That’s where I was riding a horse when …. I danced where those houses now stand….. My friend lived on this street….that mall was once called…..

It fascinates me because I had never noticed the constant streaming of home movies in my head. Certainly not at the level I do now.  Is it because I am quieter in my own mind that the projector comes on or is the volume just turned up?

Recently I drove to southern California. It is a drive I have made many times over the years. Again, the movies played and time collapsed as I was in present, past and maybe future. My first night I stayed with a friend I met in college when I was 16 and as we talked (and talked and talked) the story of our intertwined lives played on my internal screen. All of them occurring in my mind simultaneously. This phenomenon continued as I travelled daily to Laguna Beach to enjoy the sounds of the ocean. Events from the 70s, 80s, 90s and all of this new century played and replayed over each other. The times with my father at the Surf & Sand, the many times at the beach with family and friends. Meals shared, laughter and moments.

Then this past week I received a phone call from someone I first met over 50 years ago. Someone that I had been thinking about for the past month and thinking –“I should call them” – but hadn’t yet made the move to do so. Awakened from a dead sleep, I grabbed the phone and knew the instant I heard her voice who it was. We had not spoken in nearly 20 years. Her happiness at having found me was a delight, as were her words, “I’ve been thinking about you for the past month.” We talked for an hour, she in southeast Asia, me lying in bed as all the photos flashed across my mind.

It appears that the space/time continuum is collapsing a bit and allowing me to live in all the moments. Taking away the standard belief of time.  It is a whole lot more interesting than the rest of the nation simply switching back from daylight savings.