how not to lose memories

Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads-at least that's where I imagine it-there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in a while, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library.

-Murakami

Mona once explained a theory similar to this to me. I remember something about filing cabinets and a little man that stored things away. This was right after she got back from college, and I thought she was so smart with her philosophy degree to come up with a brilliant metaphor. I was only worried about dumb AP classes and didn't yet know about thinking on a different level; you can use your imagination to make up ways to explain the world.

 It's a little more familiar to picture a library in our minds, and all the reference cards we're constantly making with photos, journals, jotted down quotes, recipes, jewelry. I use my reference cards all the time because my memory is so bad, and I hope it's not something I've come to rely on. But, it's a special thing to look back and remember, knowing that we lost that feeling with time, but can always revisit it.