Comfortable Memories (An Escape To Treasure)

Today I was out for a walk just because it’s a nice thing to do.

I can hear you complain. Yes, I know ‘nice’ is a pretty limp word. Some would say it’s a devalued sentiment. Let’s reclaim it. You don’t have to just accept defeat.

Thinking about it, there are positive associations with ‘nice’. A nice cup of tea. A nice piece of cake. A nice time. And so on. They – to my mind – come pleasantly tinged with nostalgia. But it might well be, at least in part, justifiably rosy nostalgia. Sometimes, things were better in the past.

An awful lot of what gets called progress is assumed to be positive. But an awful lot of what’s called progress is merely change.

Anyway.

The walk led to one thought and on to another. And it was all positive enough.

xxxxxx

I guess it’s a day dominated by an unbidden memory of childhood. A memory prompted by chance. And that’s fine.

Comfortable Memories (An Escape To Treasure)

Playing in bracken. It was big enough/I was small enough to crawl for what seemed like a long way beneath it. Exciting secrecy. Childhood memories.

Years later, I was walking near a beech wood and noticed the bracken growing near by. I’ve a contorted willow in my garden. Prompted – if obliquely – by the bracken, last year I tried planting and growing ferns under it. With limited success. Now, I’m thinking the willow’s taking too much water. They are thirsty trees. It was worth a try.

The failed planting triggered the memories, not the other way around. Comfortable memories that you can trust. Safe. An escape to treasure.

It seems I have lost chunks of my memory. Positive recollections are things to treasure.