If you could go back to the start of your life and do it all again, would you?
Yes
No
I asked the 94-year-old woman if she could go back to any age, what would it be, and would she go back? Without hesitation, she simply responded, “All of them.”
This was one of the last questions I asked her. I knew what “all of them” meant to her as she had just shared it all in her story. To go back to all of it means reliving the things you would rather forget, experiencing heartbreak again, feeling the sting of rejection, and the despair of loss. But those difficult moments are interwoven into all the wonderful ones: finding love again, the little victories in life, and the people that mean the most to you.
At 94 years old, she understands this: Your life is made up of all the ages you have lived, all the experiences, all the joy, and all the pain. Would you do it all again?
I think I would.
Life storytelling gives me the perspective of living someone’s life with them. I have experienced a full and long-lived life through their memories. It makes me feel things a little differently than I used to because I no longer view life through just the lens of my experiences but the view of all of the stories I have told.
Going back to all of the points of our lives is realizing that life isn’t just about the happy moments we choose to remember; it is about the painful ones we choose to forget.
When people ask if you would do it all the same or change your past, it is hard to answer because, of course, there are things you would rather not relive, and you would change it.
But if you didn’t have the option to change things, and there was no chance of a butterfly effect, would you do it all again?
I think I would.
As we get older, we realize how tragically fragile everything is. I would go through all the struggles and pain to have all the little moments again: my dad running through the yard pushing me on a wheelbarrow ride or my mom reading me a bedtime story, to laugh hysterically with a best friend over a prank phone call before caller ID was a thing, to hold my kids again for the first time and see their big eyes blinking and looking up at me and realizing things would never be the same, and every other little moment of joy.
But we can't go back, so where does that leave us? It isn’t living in the past.
Life storytelling isn’t about looking back; it is about preserving and coming to terms with our past to give us the perspective we need to enjoy the here and now.
I can’t relive my childhood moments with my parents, but it can remind me to appreciate that they are still here. I can’t go back to when my kids saw the world for the first time, but I can enjoy and look forward to all the firsts they still have to come and appreciate all the chaos that is the teen years. I may not find it as hilarious to make prank phone calls, but I can still be silly and make it a point to just plain laugh more.
As this year winds down with holiday celebrations and we gear up for a new year, I am going to go back to the start by starting to appreciate everything in life I can do right NOW.
Are you ready for a restart in 2025?
Here is one of my favorite songs that tells it better than I ever could:
I hope your new year is full of wonderful memories yet to be made,
Maureen
Comments