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| Ghosts of Lives Past and Future |
For those of you who use Facebook, you may be familiar with their memories feature where each day, you can see what you posted on Facebook on that day one, two, three, and so forth years ago. I think it's great! I love to look back at those memories, to see what I was doing, to know how I was feeling, and now knowing everything that has happened since that point in time. In a way, it's kind of like having the ability to see the future. I look at a picture or a status update and I know what will happen in the next day, week, and year after that point in time. It's a strange feeling to be able to look back at one particular moment in your life, knowing that in that moment, you had no idea of what was to come next.
When I look at these moments in time, sometimes it's as if they are a completely different life,m. I'm overcome with the realization that so much has happened since that moment. So many people have come into my life. Each significant interaction like a chapter in a book. How many lives do we live in our lifetime? I'm not sure if I believe in reincarnation, but if it exists, how many have we lived before? How many will we live after this one ends?
To this affect, I love buying new-to-me used books. The books sometimes have items left in them like a business card, old receipt or piece of scratch paper. My mind wanders when I think about who read the book before me, what was happening in their life at that moment, how did the book impact their life, if at all? These items seem to get to live many lives of their own. Kind of like the old Redwood trees that have stood for 300 years. Imagine what they've seen? How many lives, both human and animal, storms, sunrises and sunsets have they been quiet observers of? So much life has crossed their path.
Often I feel insignificant in time and in the world when I think about these things, knowing that my life is a small moment in history compared to the history of time and all of the things that have happened before me and will happen after me. It's easy to feel like I have no impact on this world and perhaps I don't really need to. Perhaps just being present in these moments of each passing day is all I need? The pictures I take and the words I write are a small way to immortalize my moments here in time.
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My newest and ongoing project: The Spaces Between
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