This afternoon my parents told me that they worried about me when I was little because I was so quiet. My parents thought I was a social recluse. And really, I probably was. I don't know what I did with all my time, alone in my room. I honestly cannot remember. At all. Isn't that weird?
Isn't it strange what things are minds will let us remember, and which ones we really have to dig deep to keep from forgetting? Someone once told me that the human mind is capable of remembering every piece of information and every memory ever given to us. They said that our brains have an insane recording and filing system, but most of the time are feeble minds just aren't capable of retrieving that information. It's there, but we can't find it. It may be on the tip of our tongue for years, but we'll never remember what it is. Isn't that crazy? And if all this stuff really is there in our minds and we do remember it deep in the depths of our brainwaves, but if we can't access that... do those things even exist? I guess one could say that even though the memories are logged up there, since we can't access them or retrieve them, they really aren't even up there at all. How could we prove otherwise?
I've been thinking a lot about these abstract things like old memories; it's graduation season. And this makes me retrospective. I have pictures that tell me things have happened when I was little, but I can't remember them happening. And for a lot of people this all happens again in college--going through things you don't remember to only be told about them later--but that kind of forgetting isn't what I'm talking about.
Sometimes I think we forget why we're living. If you take all your best childhood memories and lock them up in a box, do you know how hard it would be to keep that box closed? Do you know all the joy that those memories contain? I suppose it's different for everyone, but childhood memories (and only the best ones) become a sort of foundation for who we are to grow upon. If I think about me as a child--the social recluse, apparently--and the me I've become today, well... frankly, it's weird. Who knew I would grow up to be this person? Who said a little girl with Elvis-like crazy black hair, a lisp, and no coordination would end up as me right now? There are so many events between my social reclusive days and now that have shaped me into who I am, and some are more pivotal than others. And no matter how long I sat here remembering, I wouldn't be able to tell you even half of them. My brain won't let me access what I want to. It won't let me even get close to trying hard enough.
But everything that has happened up til now and even here long after, God remembers. He sees it, and in his amazing brain (or whatever it is God uses for thinking) he can access it. And he's known all along that I wasn't meant to be such a recluse and he knew it would worry my parents but he built me this way for a reason. I'm still coming out of my shell and I still have those quiet breezy days, but I'm learning who God wants me to be. Sometimes it's better to be still, you know?
In 10 years, I won't remember writing this. I will remember somewhere inside this hard head, but I won't be able to see it anymore. But God will know. And I'll still have him with me to trust that really, honestly, it's still there.