You Never Forget

Sometimes you cross paths with people that change you — and you them. You never forget.

While reading the posts of distant friends, I sometimes find myself drawn into their lives — their hopes, dreams, happiness, and sadness. It interests me that so many of us struggle to find our place in the world, or to find our way back to the path when lost. In this vast connected world, it seems we have never been more alone.

The words of Tennyson come to mind:

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down.
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

We analyse so much — recalling past adventures, both good and bad. We judge both decisions of the past, and those we have yet to make. And yet we never really change — we are still filled with the hopes and dreams of youth, but perhaps burnished a little by the experiences of adulthood.

I used to wonder if my lot was to sail across the shipping lanes of other people’s lives — crossing paths from time to time, making friends, sharing experiences, picking people up, setting them gently down, and moving on. I used to think it was all happening by chance.

But sometimes you cross paths with people that change you — and you them.

After circling ever closer in a whirlpool of the universe’s making, the machinery eventually flings you apart — leaving fragmented memories, unfinished thoughts, wistful smiles, and an appreciation that you never quite know what tomorrow might bring. You are reminded that you matter — that you saw, and were seen.

You never forget.