Someone I love is playing a piece on the piano which is also dear to my heart.
The music has deep meaning. Both because of the era I associate it with, and the persons I link to it.
The woman I have known for almost all her life also holds huge space in my heart.
When something becomes layered, internally it becomes like a science-fiction time-changing movie where the screen moves away from you, showing you the various images and eras all simultaneously.
So now, this music and experience currently means then and this present moment.
Along with this comes the complexity of all the emotions that coincide with each of the years as well.
We as people are intricate and interconnected.
I wonder if this explains why little children are full of joy – their experiences are singular and uncomplicated. With every ensuing year, our memories and experiences get "married" to other events – not all of which are simplistically pure and whole. There's an enormous amount of sadness that also gets woven into the good.
I was at a workshop where I was asked to proffer an "uncomplicated memory" – and quite honestly, I couldn't do it.
Perhaps one of our tasks as we age is to somehow see and grasp the layered nature of our experience and then volitionally choose to experience now as if it is the singular event – take the happy and skip with it; do we need to just hold voraciously onto that heart of a child?
And run with joy while the music lasts.