The power of nostalgia (and why it can be a good thing)
The power of nostalgia
Lately, I am feeling especially overcome with nostalgia. Sappy, even.
I am hounded by an odd feeling of wanting to go “home”, just for a day. To childhood.
I want to walk home from school and see my mom chatting with Mr. Scillepi next door, across our shared tiny fence.
I want to practice saying supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or Scrumpdillyishus. And sing Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah at the top of my lungs.
I want to see my dad walk in the door at dinner time and joke with me about pulling his heavy steel-toed work boots off, and laughing at his jokes about pulling his finger too.
I want to safely ride around the neighborhood on the bumpy asphalt, sitting on the banana seat of my bike, with the streamers flying off of the handles as the wind sings between each shiny plastic piece.
I want to play with my Barbie’s or build imaginary Lego worlds, just for one night. To be a young teen, and play my favorite records while swapping alternately angst/humor filled stories with friends.
I want to see the sun go down on my familiar street and look into our home from the outside. Into the big picture window, seeing my family as we were.
Just for a day.
Long enough to tell my parents how much I appreciate them. As an adult, who now understands their world a bit better.
What does nostalgia do to a person?
Do you ever feel that way? A deep and almost inexpressible longing for moments far in the past?
I must admit to being taken aback by the intensity. However, it makes sense. We are just caught unaware.
Remember being a kid and not wanting to look like anyone, or be just like anyone else?
Tonight when I looked in the mirror after washing my face, I saw my mother looking back. And I liked seeing her/me there.
My Grandma is 92 and can’t call me anymore, some days she struggles to even remember who I am.
My parents are the age of my grandparents (in my mind’s eye).
My own daughters are the age that somehow, I realize only recently, that was long, long ago.
I even have an amazing and precious baby grandson! How I look forward to teaching him what I know about seeing life through the God-colored glasses, that his great-great-grandma taught me.
These are nostalgic memories, and I am grateful.
(Check out a neat project I am working on to document then/now here)
Why is nostalgia so powerful?
Time marches on they say, and when we are young, we laugh with a fresh cockiness. So sure that somehow, it is different for us.
We are carefree and blazing our own path.
Yet, I received paperwork back this week that rudely announced my age. I looked around for the correct owner of this packet, surprised that there was only me in the room. That was my number. My age.
Why is it shocking when aging comes barreling toward us, faster than we can dodge the years?
Perhaps being nostalgic is another way of saying we are homesick for something we cannot put our finger on. A peace that safely enveloped us.
***If you, like I sometimes didn’t, find that peace didn’t come as a gift growing up? There is an interesting article on the healing power of narrative in Epoch times this week. You can read it here.
Why is nostalgia so powerful?
Once, I told my grandma that I felt old. She snorted (in her proper, Yankee way) and said, “Well dear, that is easy to say when you are still young. Try being MY age.”
How true Grandma, and that is a lesson I will honor all of my days.
There isn’t a romanticizing of childhood, or years past. But instead, an appreciation that has been growing through experiences, a fresh lens of heightened maturity.
In reality, I don’t really mind aging, so much as it just surprises me. All the people I love are older, right along with me. Some, already crossed over Heaven’s gates.
It is a JOY to watch my daughters build their own lives. Shocked, still, that I won’t even be a young mama raising them again. Knowing just how young they are, even though they too think that life is passing by too quickly. How I hope they heed my warning to embrace life for all its worth!
For each day? It is a gift. A treasure.
To complain about wrinkles or white hair or a slower body is an insult to life itself. Our skin shouts, “hello! I’m still holding you in, aren’t I? Where is my thank you for all I do for you each day?” And if our body moves on its own, well, hallelujah! That is truly something to behold and celebrate.
So, all of this onslaught of emotions? It is okay if sometimes we just want to go back for a day. It by no means is an indicator of a current life void of appreciation.
The healing power of nostalgia
Years ago, 30 this month, a young bride stood confidently at the altar of a young groom. They said “I do” with willing hearts and utter cluelessness about what the next 3 decades would bring. Life isn’t exactly how we planned it, none of us can say it is. That is probably a blessing in disguise.
For if we really understood how time is fleeting, we might miss out on enjoying the todays…worrying about the tomorrows passing too quickly.
My dreams have come true, after all. A prince to love me. A family to care for. and a voice, to still sing silly songs at the top of my lungs.
“What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles, it was a miraculous world. ” -G.K. Chesterton
It is never too late to view the world with wonder. Stop, with purpose, just to see what there is to see. I am blessed to have never outgrown my sense of awe and interest in what is, or could be. The “luxury” of being a Highly Sensitive Person. You don’t miss much 🙂
If you feel nostalgic once in a while? Enjoy the comfort of joyful memories. Then, refreshed…come back and embrace the life you have today.
So, what can you celebrate where you are right now? Looking back can be a sweet reminder, but the past is a place to visit, not to live. This, my friends, is where the joy is. The ordinary moments of this day. This moment.
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Christa, Thanks for the great article! I love to read your writing and I can always hear you reading it to me. It was so wonderful to catch up with you last week. Friends are a dear treasure and make this journey of life a joy. So glad you came into my life, my friend!!
Thanks for sharing, my friend. Can we go back to the days of Oreos and Dr. Pepper and an A1C meant nothing to us….LOL
Ha, you made me snort laugh 🙂 Isn’t it a blessing to be friends so long there are 1,000 jokes and stories between us?
Christa, Thanks for the great article! I love to read your writing and I can always hear you reading it to me. It was so wonderful to catch up with you last week. Friends are a dear treasure and make this journey of life a joy. So glad you came into my life, my friend!!
Awww ditto! Thanks SO much for your encouragement