Have you wondered why we tend to relive old memories…..Like a rerun of old movies….My goodness the pain we could save ourselves with OUR choices
Just for a moment stop and consider this
Does the DVD player care if you choose,, romance, war, horror,, animation or what ever….NO way, it simply accepts what you feed into it .. then spits out the memory recorded within
YOUR brain and your emotions do the rest
So, are you beginning to get the picture here …. YOU are the one in control of what you CHOOSE to replay.. and as such.. what emotions are triggered
Let me share a rather interesting memory of mine
Let’s take a step way back in time to when yours truly was 16 … I was working in the kitchen of St John of God Hospital in Kalgoorlie and loving it. We had a wonderful, filled nun who ran the show … with more than a touch of humor and a tiny splash of naughtiness .. a wee rebel in robes, no less
Well to get to the point without becoming a novel…. heaven help us THE BISHOP was coming not only to visit and say a mass or few… but to bless the hospital..including the kitchen
The performance , could have done MGM proud , I tell you there wasn’t a screw , nut , of blot that didn’t shine brighter than diamonds
Not a patient who dared to move under their perfectly stiff ironed sheets, not a hospital corner out a fraction of an inch
The only fly in the ointment .. can you believe it was ME YES ME ….Upset the apple cart so to speak
Picture this if you will
Said nun, had been gifted bucket loads of rich, sweet m red grapes…. Did she share them among the patients.. not a bit of it
She let her naughty side out to play and decided to make wine….Now, myself here had not a whisker of an idea what or how wine was made, which led to the downfall of the bishops blessing
Now summer in Kalgoorlie can get hotter than any version of hell ever was , especially in the ’60’s when air con was unheard of .. and a hessian sack tacked outside the window , and given regular waterings .. was the best on offer
So, between the usual kitchen duties and the ‘[unnecessay] scrubbing .. things were a tad warm around the edges
One by one we’d sneak into the cold room for a rest and a dipper of ice cold water… what a treat
WELL the inevitable happened… I discovered the churn of ‘grape juice’ stashed behind the milk churn… in my defense .. SAID NUN had sent the ;poor child’ to clean the cold room… big mistake that one
So as I happily cleaned, not much to do as everything got a daily bath whether needed or not
Reverent Mother [a mean old stick] always sprouting Cleanliness is next to Godliness…personally I thought the good Lord could find better things to do with time than checking behind ears or under jars of jam….but there you go
Magic day arrives
Everyone in a frenzy, all kitchen staff in early as the Great Man had to say early mass.. which obviously drained him of every skeric of energy , judging by the amount of food on offer. Why he couldn’t have porridge with stewed prunes like everyone else defeated me.. mind you he was a fine size, so, apparently over stuffed wherever he went
After a breakfast that should have seen him well stuffed for a day or three …it was on to prepare a feast for lunch.. all this performance as well as the regular hospital stuff… patients still had to be fed, bland uninteresting stuff Needless to say this involved quiet a few retreats to the cold room , and a quick dipper of grape juice for yours truly
Then we were heading for the Magic Mystical Moment when the man himself , flanked on one side be the parish priest and the other by the Old Stick, herself , preceded by two little altar boys with not a hair out of place
Someone obviously noticed ‘the child’ was not quite with the program , so at the last minute, behind everyone’s back I was pushed into the cold room… My then happy place”
I was told later to everyone’s horror the bishop , motioned that he would bless the cold room
Get ready for it
Door swings open , I get hit by a wave of Frankincense and Myhrr and a splash of Holy water
Me, minding my own business..perched on the milk churn, dipper of grape juice in hand… merrily singing ‘ What shall we do with the drunken sailor followed by Ave Maria at the sight before me
I swear the Bishop was holding in a roar of laughter, cos I got a God Love the Child
Now do you get the picture , this memory leaves me in smiles and a good place
Then brain so doesn’t see the time lapse , so the laughter and joy is a fresh as the first time around
So ‘play’ the happy funny joyous memories
Make them your go to binge when down things sneak in