Nostalgic moments…

This past weekend I encountered a wave of nostalgic moments as I sifted through old photo albums, many of which I hadn’t opened for at least two decades…

I suppose this is the by-product of our recent move, combined with Judy’s encouragement.  To be honest I had to de-duplicate the photo albums as I found that not only did, I have lots of dups, but also many of the old photos were of such poor quality I’m surprised I kept them at all.

In all, I pared back from seven albums to two.

Best of all was to review many of the photos of my early years in Toronto (80’s & 90’s) and share the stories with Judy.  Lots of great photos with different aspects and times in my life.

One of the benefits was for me to collate many of these into small groupings that I could scan and either post or send to friends. It’s been great reconnecting with a host of people who I’d lost contact with over the years, and fabulous to chat once again.

I’ve always been a sentimental person, with many of the photos evoking memories of these moments captured in time.  It’s also been great on another front as it’s also prompted some of my friends to begin going through their albums and posting ones from the same era and therefore expanding the photo collections collectively.

Many have sent me some of their photos and we’ve reconnected over some of these shared memories.

It’s good to think you may have been the catalyst for others as well.  In some ways the butterfly effect in full swing.

Interestingly, with many of these friends there has been so much shared history over the years, albeit a decade or two ago.  Clearly, the challenge for us all is that with our hectic lives we seem to lose track of these important touchstones to our lives as they fade from view.

In addition, to the nostalgic moments this experience also generated a decision to not only do this one time, but to in some way keep connected.

I realize the old adage of “Some people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime” and so some relationships aren’t meant to last, but come to us to help us with something that we need to learn or understand, others come to us during a moment in our lives – University, health emergency, job or specific situation.

And yet others, whom I can count on less than two hands have come into my life and have remained a constant source of love, encouragement and support throughout the different every era in my life.

For each of these groups of friends I am truly grateful, as I’ve both learned the lessons that I needed to, but also been supported during good, bad and memorable moments in my life, while others have been beside me through everything…

We need each group of these people in our lives as they each bring a unique perspective, learning opportunity and support to us at the exact moments we need them.

Often, we only see these lessons in retrospect, after the relationship has dimmed or departed, other times we get to understand the full force of the relationship after the fact in the lesson’s that we’ve learned when we’re applying them.

A big part of my sensitivities and feelings of nostalgia are rooted deeply within my introspection and self-reflection.  I tend to care about the people in my life, and for the most part can feel the progressions of these relationships.

Knowing when to let go is important, and may be triggered by a conversation, or moment that makes it clear that what you thought you may have had is no more.

This is perfectly normal, but many of us get caught up in the drama, versus seeing the situation or moment for what it is – a parting of a shared perspective or difference of opinion.

The most important aspect is to understand the significance of each relationship, although as I said often only in retrospect as we’re too close to the moment to fully grasp the consequence.

My foray into the photo albums has been a great source of joy as I relived each of the moments in the photos, however the absolute best part has been my sharing them with the others in the photos and reconnecting, albeit possibly only briefly.

In essence, life is about storytelling and each of these photos that I shared bear a unique story and shared experience.  I never get tired of these nostalgic moments and for all my foibles I still believe that my sensitivities and emotions are a personal strength of mine irrespective of what others may think.

Recognizing our own personal attributes and following through is a testament to who you really are.

Real, authentic and not afraid to show your emotions and sensitivities for me are vital to who I am.

How about you?  Do you really know who you are – deep down?  Have you explored, understand and accepted yourself for who you really are?   Not all of us have the capacity for this level of self-reflection, so here’s your opportunity.

Until next week.

Ciao!