A Picture, A Small Heart, and Years of Life Lived

Isn't it funny how an object or a certain smell can bring back a flood of memories? I pulled out one of the (many) boxes I have yet to unpack since moving back in November. I had put it aside since it didn't contain anything that I really needed to survive. A box that should have taken me about 20 min to sort through ended up taking me over an hour. It was similar to when you flip through a photo album you haven't looked at in awhile. You look at each picture and have a laugh, or shed a tear. These were all objects that hold some meaning or significance to me. Each time I pulled out something I remembered precisely why I kept it and re-lived some happy and even some sad moments in my life. Its funny that with some things I pulled out, it put me back right into that time period. I swear I was back on the Cote d'Azur smelling fresh bread, the Mediterranean Sea, and even a pot of Tisane tea...but really I was sitting alone on a cold concrete floor in my basement. For a moment you get to relive these precious memories. Some might look at certain things I've kept as junk, but they will never know what that small cardboard heart valentine my dad gave to me really means. These tokens of times past shouldn't be in a box in the basement, yet they aren't really for display either. When you are always on the go and keeping busy, you forget the things that brought you to this point in your life, or the experiences and memories that make you who you are. It's nice to take a minute and ground yourself again.