Memories Are Like Puzzles

How memories are lost to time.

As I pick up one of my son’s lost puzzle pieces from the floor, I can’t help but think how memories are a lot like puzzles. I will explain.

When the puzzle is new, the many connecting pieces are not lost.

In fact, these pieces are fresh - out of the box, and the picture is fully visible and untorn.

All you have to do is think, concentrate, and put a little work into piecing the puzzle together. Eventually, the puzzle can be completed.

Just as a memory can be remembered.

But after some time has passed, the pieces start to age. The image on each piece fades. The edges might tear and fold.

If left unattended, they might fall into the couch cushions or get swept or sucked up by the vacuum, eventually thrown away. The puzzle can no longer be completed

The memory cannot be remembered…

These missing puzzle pieces are like gaps in our memory. The older we become, the less of each memory, one may recall.

It becomes harder to remember the memory.

We take out the old photos and they do help to reinforce the memory that you know exists, but only as you remember it.

But when you look through those same photos with your friends who experienced those exact memories with you, as I once did with my Italian friend from our summer studying abroad in Spain, you realize how many memories your friend remembers about that experience that you have forgotten.

Your memory was not so complete after all, just like those old, missing puzzle pieces.

You realize your memories can be forgotten if you don’t think about them regularly and capture them in photographs, memoirs, or social media to help you remember them later on as time passes.

Memories are like puzzles. Take care of your memories. Document them. Reflect on them. Don’t let time fade those memories from your mind until they are lost forever.

Write about your memories, before they are lost to time.