The Places We Remember

 How important is a person or an event in life? We store events in our life in our own personal memory bank, silently and unconsciously sorted into categories that define significance of the event. The profoundness of the event is defined by where we stored it. Even denial, who may be your best friend, can't fool the inborn wisdom of what any event really means to you.

We remember places in our lives typically by what happened there. We grew up there, went to school, had a home we loved or hated, met a friend or something significant may have happened there that altered the course of our lives. Good or bad, we remember places because of events. These are important events we store to reference in the future as a cherished or difficult time we can't really dispose of.

When you recall an event that is really significant you can suddenly remember sounds that are a part of the memory. You will recall what was happening around the place, words that were said, traffic sounds, animals and a host of other things suddenly fill in the canvas of the picture you stored to recall the event. You may hear the metal scraping together if an accident or near accident is involved in this memory. It comes to life on every recall. This is a significant event we have subconsciously recognized as one important enough to record like a video. There is a need to fill in the image with the sounds around the event. You will never forget those. At some deeper level we have recognized that we need to hold tightly to this memory, and it is stored as such.

Deeply emotional events are stored in a completely different way. Recall any event where deep emotions were in control and suddenly you see the images, hear the sounds and smell the air around the event. You have mentally revisited the scene and it becomes oh so real, again. These events leave the deepest memory imprint in our lives. The most wonderful and most tragic events are stored in this category. They can cause lasting love, profound grief and even PTSD. We have reacted with all available senses to these events. These are life altering and the most profound events in our life.

When you really want to know how significant any event or person is in your life revisit the memories and you can easily see how deeply this has impacted you by simply noticing how you have stored the memory. What senses were involved?

Memories are warm blankets we wrap ourselves in to ensure we never really lose someone we cherish. They are company during the best or coldest times of our lives in addition to the most shocking times we survive. They also act as the voice of a teacher, reminding us of all the things we endured to become the best we can be until another lesson is tucked away to guide us forward.