Examining nostalgia reveals an innate drive within consciousness to gather estranged fragments of identities lost from across life's passages and weave them into internal cohesion.
Thanks! I feel like SFC spends most of the day moving in and out of the playlist zone, shifting between nostalgia and presence as we collect the songs a year in advance, and then when we see where the energies have led us in each daily reading as they unfold a year later. When it dawned on me that our connection with music is such a great universal example, it felt so right for this crew. YOU are going to love Part Two. Cultural impact! ❤️
I used to visit Coral Castle, an extraordinary achievement especially when Ed moved it all in one night to another location... tons of coral rock alone! One day there was a huge telescope set up to view the Sun! I was fortunate to safely view several eruptions on the surface of the sun... an incredible experience shard by my son. We were the only visitors there that day and were invited by NASA scientists to have a look!
I recall Jorge’s Luis Borges’ line about memory and nostalgia; he writes “We are our memory, we are that chimerical museum of shifting shapes, that pile of broken mirrors.”
"Passing a childhood home where we once found harbor stirs pangs of remembrance and grief. That house remains as physical anchor, yet the safety, love, or pain - and more often, a combinations in varying degrees - that it represented now lives solely as an artifact in memory's corridors."
So, I just found out this week that my Home in the country that we moved into when I was 4 and where my mom still lives for nearly 45 years (thus the capital 'h') will soon be changed forever. The many acres of farmland adjacent to her house have been purchased~ and sadly not by farmers. Instead of growing food, they will be building 5 huge warehouses. In order to begin construction, they will be making a new road. The countryside that is home to deer and countless other wild animals will be transformed into something new entirely. When my mom first told me the news, I was immediately angry and distraught~ for I will be losing the one place that I have always "found harbor".
But then, perhaps due to my growing ability to accept what I cannot change, I surrendered to the inevitability of change. We knew it was coming. It was always just a matter of time.
Reframing this reality has taken the form of my mom and I choosing to see it as the beginning of a new adventure. An opportunity to leap into an exciting unknown...that may never have happened at all if this external impetus wasn't standing on her doorstep~ literally!
When the time comes~ when I walk through my childhood bedroom, sit at the kitchen table, walk along the familiar tree-line in the backyard for the very last time, I will refer to this beautiful piece to ensure that I integrate all that this experience has to teach me and give to me. xo
I know it's bittersweet, but the place where you are inside and how you're handling this - I love this for you so much - your connection to the space, your outlook on it, your being inclined to honor it fully, take it in and make it a part of you - all of it!! It will be sad to look back, but you'll feel good that you spent the time there doing it because it's a memory you'll always have, somewhere you can always visit in your mind space and know it as one of your sacred home spaces. And I love that you're getting to do this with your mother. It's something you'll look back on together with shared resonance. ❤️
Awww!! This is so beautiful, Demi!! The kind of thing that~ if someone said it to me in person~ I would reach out and give that person a hug...so here is a BIG HUG for you!! xox
You bring up questions I have pondered for the last few months regarding time and when I am sequestered. I know I went back there, not only did I talk but I became my younger self again. It definitely wasn’t linear, I was back there. And it wasn’t planned. It then took me to another experience I had when I was 15 with him that was somewhat similar, although that one was not shut out from my conscious mind, I’ve thought of it over the years. But I could make the connection between the two and how it had impacted me. Yes, we are capable of experiencing time as non linear. And what does that say about us and our innate gifts? We are capable of so much.
The home I lived in the first 13 years of my life had woods behind it that eventually would lead to a cliff over the Mississippi. I ventured out there alone many times. I was literally a lost child coming home from the dark woods at times. Figuratively though, I don’t think I was lost. Years ago it was cleared out to expand the neighborhood. When I did shadow work I went back in my mind to those woods and that place. I found many beautiful things back there. A traumatic experience with my father that I had pushed away came flooding back and it helped explain some things about me. I was very grateful for it because I was able to speak to that 10 or 11 year old as if on the sidelines after it happened and then reintegrated that wisdom into my current Self. Midwifed it as you say. I thought of this when I was reading about Jung and the journey. Great stuff as always Demi. Looking forward to Part 2.
Thank you! We leave markers for ourselves to usher the fragments back to us. It sounds like you found one of your guideposts. And it likely DID help you to send energy back to your 10 year old self. There have been many accounts of phenomena like this where people had experiences in childhood that resonated with meditations they did in adulthood to send energy or healing back to their childhood selves. And then it dawns on them that the strange experiences they had as kids may have been self-conjured as adults sending that energy back outside of time. So, which comes first if time is simultaneous when we are not locked into subjective perspective? Was it all instantaneous? And are we capable of experiencing it in ways beyond linear or cyclical when we are inside of our bodies, sequestered?
At 70 next month I have a lifetime of nostalgia stored in my soul. Fond memories along with the bittersweet ones mixed together. For me it seems like time suspends itself when I dwell in my past, because most of my life is now memories. Thank you Demi, beautiful piece.
Thank you so much!! It struck me that it's the alignment part that is most necessary - that's what brings about the integration. It's a conscious reframing of events into a cohesive narrative that doesn't just bridge the gap between past and present but also creates energetic windows into the future. When we can define the trajectory of why things had to happen in a certain order, that everything that has happened to us has happened for us for our growth, and that we had to get here to become the people we were meant to become, all of this has a way of coming into clearer focus. And then future choices become clearer as well. "Time suspends itself when I dwell in my past." I love that. 🙏🏻💜💫
This line! ❤️
"We hold talismans in playlist form from lost eras pointing the way forward"
Looking forward to part 2!
Thanks! I feel like SFC spends most of the day moving in and out of the playlist zone, shifting between nostalgia and presence as we collect the songs a year in advance, and then when we see where the energies have led us in each daily reading as they unfold a year later. When it dawned on me that our connection with music is such a great universal example, it felt so right for this crew. YOU are going to love Part Two. Cultural impact! ❤️
I used to visit Coral Castle, an extraordinary achievement especially when Ed moved it all in one night to another location... tons of coral rock alone! One day there was a huge telescope set up to view the Sun! I was fortunate to safely view several eruptions on the surface of the sun... an incredible experience shard by my son. We were the only visitors there that day and were invited by NASA scientists to have a look!
Dwina xx
That is so cool! What a great experience!!
I recall Jorge’s Luis Borges’ line about memory and nostalgia; he writes “We are our memory, we are that chimerical museum of shifting shapes, that pile of broken mirrors.”
Broken mirrors trying to reassemble, it would seem. I love that! 🙏🏻
Such a great read Demi! This really resonated with me. Thank you. ❤️
Thank you so much, Pamela! I appreciate it! 🙏🏻💜💫
Here it is. Thanks again! https://rightfootforward.substack.com/p/if-a-tree-falls
This is beautiful! Thank you so much!! 🙏🏻💜💫
"Passing a childhood home where we once found harbor stirs pangs of remembrance and grief. That house remains as physical anchor, yet the safety, love, or pain - and more often, a combinations in varying degrees - that it represented now lives solely as an artifact in memory's corridors."
So, I just found out this week that my Home in the country that we moved into when I was 4 and where my mom still lives for nearly 45 years (thus the capital 'h') will soon be changed forever. The many acres of farmland adjacent to her house have been purchased~ and sadly not by farmers. Instead of growing food, they will be building 5 huge warehouses. In order to begin construction, they will be making a new road. The countryside that is home to deer and countless other wild animals will be transformed into something new entirely. When my mom first told me the news, I was immediately angry and distraught~ for I will be losing the one place that I have always "found harbor".
But then, perhaps due to my growing ability to accept what I cannot change, I surrendered to the inevitability of change. We knew it was coming. It was always just a matter of time.
Reframing this reality has taken the form of my mom and I choosing to see it as the beginning of a new adventure. An opportunity to leap into an exciting unknown...that may never have happened at all if this external impetus wasn't standing on her doorstep~ literally!
When the time comes~ when I walk through my childhood bedroom, sit at the kitchen table, walk along the familiar tree-line in the backyard for the very last time, I will refer to this beautiful piece to ensure that I integrate all that this experience has to teach me and give to me. xo
I know it's bittersweet, but the place where you are inside and how you're handling this - I love this for you so much - your connection to the space, your outlook on it, your being inclined to honor it fully, take it in and make it a part of you - all of it!! It will be sad to look back, but you'll feel good that you spent the time there doing it because it's a memory you'll always have, somewhere you can always visit in your mind space and know it as one of your sacred home spaces. And I love that you're getting to do this with your mother. It's something you'll look back on together with shared resonance. ❤️
Awww!! This is so beautiful, Demi!! The kind of thing that~ if someone said it to me in person~ I would reach out and give that person a hug...so here is a BIG HUG for you!! xox
Warmly accepted and returned, my love!! ❤️❤️❤️
You bring up questions I have pondered for the last few months regarding time and when I am sequestered. I know I went back there, not only did I talk but I became my younger self again. It definitely wasn’t linear, I was back there. And it wasn’t planned. It then took me to another experience I had when I was 15 with him that was somewhat similar, although that one was not shut out from my conscious mind, I’ve thought of it over the years. But I could make the connection between the two and how it had impacted me. Yes, we are capable of experiencing time as non linear. And what does that say about us and our innate gifts? We are capable of so much.
If we knew, we'd be harder to control. So, we're lied to about it and encouraged to ridicule anyone who believes it's true.
The home I lived in the first 13 years of my life had woods behind it that eventually would lead to a cliff over the Mississippi. I ventured out there alone many times. I was literally a lost child coming home from the dark woods at times. Figuratively though, I don’t think I was lost. Years ago it was cleared out to expand the neighborhood. When I did shadow work I went back in my mind to those woods and that place. I found many beautiful things back there. A traumatic experience with my father that I had pushed away came flooding back and it helped explain some things about me. I was very grateful for it because I was able to speak to that 10 or 11 year old as if on the sidelines after it happened and then reintegrated that wisdom into my current Self. Midwifed it as you say. I thought of this when I was reading about Jung and the journey. Great stuff as always Demi. Looking forward to Part 2.
Thank you! We leave markers for ourselves to usher the fragments back to us. It sounds like you found one of your guideposts. And it likely DID help you to send energy back to your 10 year old self. There have been many accounts of phenomena like this where people had experiences in childhood that resonated with meditations they did in adulthood to send energy or healing back to their childhood selves. And then it dawns on them that the strange experiences they had as kids may have been self-conjured as adults sending that energy back outside of time. So, which comes first if time is simultaneous when we are not locked into subjective perspective? Was it all instantaneous? And are we capable of experiencing it in ways beyond linear or cyclical when we are inside of our bodies, sequestered?
YES 🔥🙏💖
Thanks, Barry!! 🙏🏻💜💫
Magical piece, thank you. 1/11
Thank you, Molly! Sending my love!! 🙏🏻💜💫
At 70 next month I have a lifetime of nostalgia stored in my soul. Fond memories along with the bittersweet ones mixed together. For me it seems like time suspends itself when I dwell in my past, because most of my life is now memories. Thank you Demi, beautiful piece.
Thank you so much!! It struck me that it's the alignment part that is most necessary - that's what brings about the integration. It's a conscious reframing of events into a cohesive narrative that doesn't just bridge the gap between past and present but also creates energetic windows into the future. When we can define the trajectory of why things had to happen in a certain order, that everything that has happened to us has happened for us for our growth, and that we had to get here to become the people we were meant to become, all of this has a way of coming into clearer focus. And then future choices become clearer as well. "Time suspends itself when I dwell in my past." I love that. 🙏🏻💜💫
All the best artists have their muses. 🙏🏻💜💫
Thank you! I appreciate it!