I’ve entered a nostalgic period and in doing so I have come to acknowledge the different phases I’ve passed through on my life’s journey. I find it interesting to look back at the life I’ve lived, the people I’ve known, the things I’ve achieved – or not – and to reflect on the moments of joy I’ve experienced alongside the moments of despair. I keep the hope that there are many more to come.
I recently joined a Facebook group ‘We Grew up in Manchester’ and receive regular posts containing photographs from days gone by from the 1900s. There are several names I recognize on there and I long for a familiar face to pop up on a photograph.
I thought it was only older people who looked back like this but the twenty and thirty-year-olds on my FB are displaying these same nostalgic traits. I guess it’s human nature and acts as a sort of comfort blanket when the global world becomes too much to bear.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/terrorism-word-collage-on-white-background-56070769
I do still visit the places I’ve lived in yet observing them in the physical reality of ‘now’ sometimes leaves a sad tinge that my life from that time has been lived. It’s the people I knew then that keep the place special, the relationships I shared with those people who have moved on or passed away that live in my precious memories. I like to think that I am living in someone’s memory from that time too. I hope so.
Part of this nostalgic period I’m in has instigated a rush of decluttering groups I’ve become bored with to inspire me to take on new things and bring back my zest for life. Two activities that have done this for me are line dancing (which I have never tried before), the other is a creative writing group focussing on ‘the now’. I attended the first session recently and it was wonderful to spend a day with like-minded creatives rediscovering my poetic voice.
I can’t stop smiling!
Small changes can make all the difference when we’re learning to love life again following a period of incapacity due to health related issues that have taken their toll on our mental well-being. Recovering is a matter of redefining who you are as you rediscover your joie de vivre.
https://pngtree.com/freepng/glitter-party-people_5252801.html
New things are coming my way and it is wonderful to be able to say I am content with how it is all coming together as I make new friends in new groups – and rekindle relationships with old friends – as it’s turned out. It’s as though God has taken my nostalgic reminiscing through old photographs as a prayer and turned back time by reconnecting me with three individual friends from different times of my life. I thought the good times we’d shared were gone forever but meeting up with each one of them has melted the years away. The relationships I had with them then and now are a nourishing source of soul food.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/people-family-together-concept-hands-vector-1313701271
I am thankful that I found my identity in Christ 17 years ago. He is the one who can fix the chaos in the world if only we let him. I pray all people will seek him out soon for their own sake and that the world can come together as one.
Here’s something to think about:
The Jesus Room by Chris Woodland
https://paxtonvic.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/poem-the-jesus-room/
Why not try it for yourself and see how YOU feel?
You will feel the very breath of God in the Jesus room.
With love for the journey,
Julie
For The Journey 