A thousand little things

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The way our memory works is not quite as straight forward as we may think. For starters, we hardly ever remember anything the way it factually happened. We remember that particular situation the way we felt it was happening…

Now, those two may be very close together, however, often they are not.
For instance when we, as children, were not allowed to eat a cookie right before dinner, no malice ever was intended! And yet, we may remember that we were wronged over and over again, because we were never allowed a cookie.

The other thing is about our memory is that whatever we are remembering has registered on all of our senses. Therefore, input to any of our senses can bring back a specific memory. This way, when I smell de scent of fresh baked bread, it brings me right back to when I was about 8 years old and my mom took me to the bakery early in the morning to buy fresh buns ~ still warm ~ for me to take as a packed  lunch on a school outing…

As we often may not know how the memory has registered in our subconscious, we may not have an inkling as to what can trigger that specific memory either. Until it happens.
And then we may find that there are a thousand little things that bring back memories of a situation, an experience, or a person. Anything from a sound to a scent; a flower, or the way the light hits the kitchen floor. And sometimes that memory is triggered by something somebody is saying.

At first glance, all of these things are factually unrelated to that particular memory, and yet each and every one of them can bring back that memory in great detail…

And so, especially when the memory is still fresh in our minds, there are a thousand little things that may trigger it. A thousand little things that confront us with how things were, what has happened, or what we have experienced.
A thousand little things that give us the opportunity to finetune our memories; chances we give ourselves to relate our memory of the event with the actuality of what happened. A thousand little things that help us cope with what could have been, but is no more…

Until at some point that memory seems to drift into the background of our (subconscious) minds, as other events take place in our lives and new memories are being built.

And then we may only need just one little thing to trigger that specific memory…
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