Memories Cannot Love Us Back
It always amazes me how caught up in repeat episodes of Yellowstone I get when flipping through shows on television. I always have to stop and watch and I always pick up on something new. This past weekend I joined Yellowstone when a conversation between Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and her father John Dutton (Kevin Costner) was going on. Beth asked her dad why he was up so early in the morning. He answered that he liked to reflect at the beginning of the day. As a reflective person, I could relate to this. Beth told him to just remember that, “You can love a memory all you want but it can’t love you back.” She was reminding him to recognize the difference between living in the past and engaging with the present and future.
While we can cherish and hold onto our memories—whether they are of people, places, or experiences—those memories themselves are static and cannot reciprocate our feelings. I’m not sure I had ever thought about that before. We must remain aware that nostalgia and longing for the past can be powerful, but they don’t provide the emotional support or connection we often seek in our present lives.
I have a lot of fond memories that I reflect on and this was a great reminder that we must not get too caught up in those memories. We must not let those memories allow us to fail to seek relationships and experiences that bring us joy in the here and now, rather than getting so lost in reflecting the on things that cannot fulfill our emotional needs. The key here, I believe, is to keep making memories!
Byron's Babbles 
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