Time and Memory Join
“It’s like the morning light,
The sun rising on the cloudless morning”1
You’ve been to the place where time and memory join
Something, someplace, a smell or taste
The town where we grew up
Part of me wants to go backwards in time
Turning around to touch the past
Part wants to keep going when you feel like turning back
The sound of fall leaves under foot
Or leaves blowing in a brisk autumn breeze
Noise of mowers and leaf blowers on a sunny fall afternoon
The whiff of food from the kitchen in the backyard
Freshly made bread
Fresh pressed coffee
Life was going on
Some awful things, and some dazzling
Regret for the things not said
Remember those in an unforgettable life for us,
Thankful for meeting them, or knowing them
Sojourners, our time like a passing shadow
Family Thanksgivings, Christmases, birthdays and any day together
Times change, the universe changes.
“Are we still the same people are the people around us the same”
The kids table, the laughter,
the dead silence when adults come through swinging doors
The ever-replenished vegetable tray and fridge filled with soda
The afternoon and time till dinner feels like days, as time does sometimes
Wind chimes echoing a sound, a joyous Thanksgiving,
Farm bell rusted from the years, ringing it, eyes squinted,
Rust falling from our eyes like the time that passes,
Down our cheeks as we dare to look up
The downstairs family room, old toys remarkable treasures to today
The warmth of the chimney, comfort, and smell of cranberries cooking
Simmering in an heirloom white enamel pot
The spare room an art museum, orderly and still with pictures lining the rail
Holiday trinkets, designating the place setting, of many carefully chosen
The smell of the cedar deck, familiarity, and the sound of the swinging screen door- Family -as it sounds closing
Near the garage, that freshly smells of Life as we will know it as time joins and memories live
It said the time flies, but without memories there is no time
Memory glues the past and the present together.
Time just doesn’t exist “out there,”
but depends on us to preserve times together 2
Everything is change
The swiftness of all that exists and it's coming into being 3
Memories, God like a weaver of heaven and earth 4
Time and Memory Join, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta
About this poem: Time and Memory Join is a poem about how our memories provide a way to preserve the past by connecting to the present and providing hope for the future. Photos from the past are one means I see that this can happen. Many time old photo albums or boxes of pictures are stored away and could mean nothing to us but then if they would vanish due to fire or flood, they would mean everything to us. Recalling times from years or decades past can rekindle love for those we have had in our lives that made life worth living and revitalize love and joy in the lives of those we currently have the gift of experiencing life together. - Joe Holuta
1. 2 Samuel 23:4 VOICE
"Is like the morning light,
the sun rising on a cloudless morning,
and the shining grasslands brought up from rain.”
2. How Our Memories Hold the Key to Time - Our memory of events glues the past and the present together.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/biocentrism/202111/how-our-memories-hold-the-key-time?amp
3. The Daily Stoic for November 15th, “Everything Is Change”.
“Meditate often on the swiftness with which all that exists and is coming into being is swept by us and carried away. For substance is like a river’s unending flow, its activities continually changing and causes infinitely shifting so that almost nothing at all stands still.”
—MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.23
4. Psalm 134:3 VOICE
"May the Eternal grant you His blessing from Zion,
God, the weaver of heaven and earth."
