Nostalgia

Wikipedia says- The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form. Perfect, but the idealized form can only mean one thing...disappointment! I try hard not to create unrealistic expectations of situations because from experience I have learned that it only leads to disappointment. So I like to think of Nostalgia differently. To me nostalgia is about the feeling more than anything.

I was driving in to work this morning sitting in crawling traffic. It was raining this morning so everyone thinks we must drive no faster than 20 mph. This gave me plenty of time to think at least. I started thinking about how things are never quite as you think or remember. For example, I just moved back to TN from FL. I had all these nostalgic thoughts--warm fuzzies--of days gone by, of times spent with family and friends. I was moving "home." And to my disappointment "home" was not what I had remembered it to be. It was that faint memory of things past. Home was that place in the past not this place I had returned to. It was somewhat of a rude awakening to see how friends have moved on and how family to had moved on in a sense. The home I remembered was gone. Thank you Nostalgia! I looked back to my physical home in Florida and felt more at "home" there. How weird. I guess it is true that home is where the heart is, as cliche as that sounds- it is so true.

Again I am reminded of my quest to live in the present and not in the memories--longing for the feelings of the past. Some days it is difficult not to live off the memories. Some days it feels good to live in the past--those feelings spur me on to make a better today :)

I like to look at Nostalgia as a sweet escape. Those memories are special to me. They are mine. They are things that I can pull out and relive anytime I want. And, put away when I am done. Not that we have to live in those memories, but we can live with them as sweet reminders of days gone by!