Those of you who know my dissertation topic know that I'm intrigued with the idea of a past--how we use the past to benefit us in the present. It also means we choose what we don't want to use--the unusable past.
The other day a dear friend emailed me with the hope that I forget the discomfort and headache of my cancer experience. I had never thought of that.
There's so much I want to remember: the love and support of so many dear friends and family.
And yet there's so much I want to forget. Like yesterday when I had such a raging headache that as I bent over to sort laundry on the floor of my closet, I ended up sitting on a pile of dirty clothes, leaning back against my Ikea dresser, crying because I was in a tailspin and I didn't think I could continue.
What do you choose to remember? What memories do you hold on to, that define you? What do you gladly forget?
Good news: with my headaches--I can switch off throughout the day between ibuprofen and acetaminophen. That TOTALLY cuts the pain.
3 comments:
I love to remember the moments that make me laugh so hard that my face hurts :)
i choose to remember "tender mercies"...one of the many reasons I so appreciate your blog.
um...i get to see you...
NEXT.
WEEK!!!
My experience with chronic pain is that when it finally slips away it is terribly, dangerously easy to forget. It feels so natural to be pain-free. But if I forget the pain I miss the moment to celebrate the lack of it. I don't recognize that I have what I have been hoping and wishing for, if that makes any sense.
So I guess I wish for a forgetting of the sensation of pain, but a remembering that I had it - so that I can remember to appreciate good health. Again, if that makes any sense.
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