21. Another Lifetime Ago

They say the brain is the strongest muscle.

I ponder that statement, and I know it is true.

I look at these pictures and writings, and one would say..

They just happened yesterday.

But to us, to me..

It feels like Eons ago.

Nostalgia is the heart and soul of any happy memory, a powerful emotional connection to times that helped mold the person we have become.

What would we be without it?

Or should I ask, what would we be without our past?

I look into my past..

And am held prisoner by it.

For the child, the young man I see living in time long past. I barley recognize him, would he recognize me?

I wish I could ask him, in reality.. I just did.

But it does not feel like it.

For he and many others like him live in another life.

In alternate universes that resides in the furthest reaches of my mind.

And when I reminisce and remember who I once was, I travel through the universes themselves.

Each incarnation has his own lessons, and his own view of life and beyond.

But just as I am held prisoner, they are as well.

For the past is not all joy, there is pain.

There is agony, regret, fear, disappointment, and humiliation.

They are scars carved into my mind forever, but they can never break me.

For that child, that teenager, that man are build to endure.

And endure we have.

For we cannot truly appreciate our good memories, unless we have endured the nightmarish ones.

I look into these vivid memories, and I see how I have grown.

I see the people who have grown with me, the friends and family who have made life so much more.

For even if they forget, I never will.

The past is the foundation of the future.

And as I step forwards into eternity, I look into the future.

I see an old man, but a familiar face.

And then I remember...

I have another lifetime to go.