A blast from the past…

We all know the good old days were not always good and yet, they weren’t all bad. And while our memories of specific details may fade, the feeling of the good days can rise up to meet us when we least expect it. Nostalgia! The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.”

Think about those words, “sentimental” and “wistful” if you close your eyes, you can imagine yourself drifting off for a few moments to a time and place that you remember with fondness. Maybe it’s your childhood home or bedroom. Maybe it’s your college dorm. We can purposefully put ourselves into these places. Every September I remember shopping for school supplies as a child. It was an outing of the whole family with great excitement. I can clearly remember the sights and sounds, the conversations.

When we are unexpectedly transported to these periods or places of happy personal association well, that’s an experience worth sharing. A few months ago, I saw the Eagles concert, only the second concert in my adult life. I know, you’re thinking she’s a real mover and shaker. This is where my adult life kicks in; after receiving the tickets from our son I began to wonder, would the seats be uncomfortable, would there be a long line for the bathroom, would it be worth all the trouble to get there? This is how I spent my prep time for the big event.

From the moment the first guitar chord sang out across the venue until the fade of the last note, I was mesmerized. The feeling in my heart and soul was unexplainable, it was pure joy. Life changing is how I described it and, of course, everyone within a few miles thought I had lost my mind. Life changing seemed a bit dramatic.

And then a concert review explained it for me. It was nostalgia! The songs took me back to high school singing my heart out with my friends, nothing special, just friends. Those days when the years stretched out ahead of us with opportunity to be and do anything, go anywhere.

Those opportunities, adventures, accomplishments may not have turned out the way I wanted. But that doesn’t matter here. The concert reminded me of what it felt like to have the opportunities, to feel the sense of adventure. An added bonus were the people around me at that concert. They looked like me, they were singing their hearts out, they remembered.

The closing line, spoken by Don Henley, brought it all home, “We are profoundly aware that we are here because of you, and if we never pass this way again, know that we are grateful.”

I was profoundly aware that I would never see that concert, in that way, again and I will continue to be profoundly aware of that experience of nostalgia and I will be very, very grateful.