accentuate the positive

Memory is mutable.
It changes a little each time you go there.
Like remembering a dream
The memory is not the dream.

But it’s my memory.
It really happened to me.
I really experienced the feelings
Even if it only happened inside me.

Eyewitness testimony is suspect.
One person’s memory some time later
Morphs into their subjective story
Merged into their imagination.

There is no written record in the mind.
The story of our past is like an oral history
Altered over time being told again and again.
This is the way we make our own myths.

Like becoming aware of yourself dreaming
You can modify your negative memories.
Explore the picture in your mind.
Focus for a moment on some beauty or pleasure.

The memory will be transformed.
Whatever happened is not forgotten
But now the positive response changes it
And your outlook on life improves.

Freylinghausen August flowers

slide show

wallkill valley rail trail southern

slide show
google map

sixty six

I remember standing beside the beautiful brook
Motionless, listening and looking
Babbling water splashing on the rocks
Below and above mingling on the surface.

There are wary brook trout here
Spooked by a shadow or a footfall.
My mother is fishing by herself this summer day.
She let me come with her to watch.

All my life I have loved water flowing
Rippling waves sparkling in the sun
Gurgling sounds not quite intelligible
Speaking to me like a voice in a distant dream.

Another time standing on a log across a brook
Stirring the water below with a stick
Blissed out by the beauty of the place
I fell into the brook.

The shock of that sudden wet and cold
And my father’s reprimand that followed
That’s why the memory is etched
But it's not the memory I keep close.

The boy down by the brook by himself
Floating in a timeless reverie.
I remember the peaceful feeling
Letting my thoughts flow past.