"I'm glad I wrote it down."


the written word by paloetic

Do you ever have those days when things are just going your way? Like everything is so finely orchestrated that you just hope you could capture every moment at the exact time they are happening? You just hope that there is some video camera somewhere in the skies or around you following your life--a camera whose video clips you can view later in your life, which will make you say "I remember this. This was one of those perfect days."

Documenting your everydays is a powerful thing, although it is not always convenient. No matter how much you write in your journal, words may not capture feelings and emotions as accurately. And then there are those days when you are just too tired or uninspired to even lift up the pen and write. I had those share of days. This blog has been the closest I have to my journal notebook and pen, and I have to say, it has been a collection of, yes, notes to myself, and all emotions that come with it. When I revisit a blog entry I wrote two years ago, I can still remember the feelings that accompany my writing of it. I don't remember every detail or the why's or how's of these feelings but they are there, immortalized in words and between lines of a blog entry, and  they are powerful enough to transport me to days and places in the past.  Gratefully, I always end my reading with peace and joy in my heart, and a silent remark to the universe, "I'm glad I wrote it down."

Today, we have countless options on documenting our lives. Social media has ushered in novel and creative ways to capture our perfect days in just one (or few) clicks! There is Twitter, and Facebook, and Instagram (my favorite I have to say), and other sites. If we want to remember something that happened in the past, we just scroll down our pages and we are instantly fed with memories of both perfect and imperfect days. Whichever format we choose to document our life--a picture, a video, even just a status message--when the time comes when we long to revisit and relive it, we find Mr. or Ms. Gratitude again, sitting beside us as we look in retrospect at our choice of capturing these moments, and say:  "I'm glad I have this."

But if they were taken away from us, say some big, black and dark force flushed every data that we have in cyberspace down to nothing, how would we feel? Will that make us incomplete? Yes, it would be a big loss, and it would feel like a very big part of our lives has suddenly become hazy and empty. It would be devastating. 

What I am most interested to know is if this hypothetical scene did happen, how many of us would take the time to rewrite or redocument our lives? Our stories? And how many of us would just let it go?

I think I may not be able to rewrite everything down as accurately, but I will do it. I will continue to write and pull out distant pieces of memories that I have. After all, as long as we are alive, no one can take our memories away from us. Not even some big, black and dark cybermonster.

Sometimes, I tell myself that I don't have to write everything down because I have these memories in my head, and there is no need to share them with the world. While this is true, I also believe that this was what Marianne Williamson would call "playing small," which, certainly, does not serve the world. What good are these experiences and encounters and gifts if they will not be shared with the world? If they will not be used to spark inspiration for others?

I am always humbled by people--friends, family, strangers--who find inspiration in this blog. I may not write everyday and I may not share every experience that I have, but those I do share are lessons that I believe are universal and touch on my everyday life and others' as well. I hope that these stories---the grains of time, the life fragments, even the debris from a sad place---when pieced together, can genuinely help readers take a breather--take a step back, see the everyday and ordinary in a new light, and breathe in life and love all over again (wink :p ; words from my About Pranayama page.).

Years from now, these words may not mean any more than just words some girl wrote down many years ago. All the same, from wherever place I will be, even from a granny's old chair reading stories to her grandchildren, I will always look back and smile with gratitude and love, and whisper to myself and the universe, "I remember this. I'm glad I wrote it down."


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