The Good Times

I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember. I wrote my first poem in grade school and fell in love with poetry. I sat in front of a typewriter free writing since my dad allowed me to “play” on his Royal. But, I just realized I seldom write during the good times.

I learned from early on the joys of writing out what I’m feeling. My early poems are of unrequited love of childhood crushes. My journal entries are filled with the stresses of life at different stages. But there are few records of the good times.

While I remember fondly my first kiss with Dan, I never wrote it down. I didn’t share any thoughts regarding our first years together when love was new, fresh and magical.

There are literally gaps of years in my journals. Sadly, I would love to go back and read those entries now after 27 years of living with him. What a joy it would be to be able to relive those magic times, those good days.

I’m not saying life is bad now. But, we are both older, slower, and there’s been a lot of stressful times we’ve lived through that changed us. Our love has matured, but the stars in our eyes are gone.

Now, we’re that old married couple who is too comfortable with each other. We don’t need to spend every waking moment in each other’s arms. In fact, now we’ve learned to cherish the moments when we get time alone away from each other.

These aren’t “good times” or “bad times”. These are just the times of our lives. We see life differently.

I’m trying to make a point to write things out more often these days. I want to try to remember all the memories, good and bad. Each experience shapes our lives.

I don’t want to be too busy to keep a record of the good days, because one day in the future I’ll look back at my life right now and say, “those were good days”. Even if life keeps getting better I don’t want to forget today.

As I work on changing my life, that’s one change I want to make. I want to hold my memories, good and bad, so later in life I can’ see the road I traveled.

And, I don’t want the record to show only the bad times. I want to be able to relive the good times too.