JULIE LINDAHL
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • WRITING
    • Books >
      • The Pendulum >
        • English
        • Swedish
      • Rose in the Sand
      • Letters from the Island
      • On My Swedish Island
    • Columnist
    • Editor
  • STORYTELLING
  • POEMS & SHORT PROSE
  • CONTACT

Why remember?

6/1/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Rain washes over new green outside my window. Leaves, buds, stalks push their way up and out to lap up clean, fresh water with no memory of the dormancy from which they came, no foreboding of  the winter soon to come. Everything is presence; that which is old, dried out and brittle is broken down, removed and washed away in another time which is not our time.

Why should we look back at all? Is it possible to judge the now for what it was then? Only weeks ago, the graceful bush with the reddish-green leaves was a few brutish red stumps that had broken through the soil like imposters. Isn't it only memory that called those stumps brutish? Could they have been something else? Were they really imposters? How can I ever know the truth about a previous presence, if all I have to rely on is the blunt tool of memory, mine and others'?

Yet, memory too is a part of our now and must be permitted. It provides a frame, a totality, for life's greatest challenge and adventure which is to seek to know and thus to taste humility.  In order to be comfortable in that state of no gravity, no judgment, which invites all manner of doubts and questions about the truth, we must have a frame, allow our memories so that they can be questioned, and seek to know the past and the dead so that we can unknow them.

Dear Reader: Welcome to "The Pendulum" where I explore these questions and many more about which I will also be writing in this blog.



2 Comments
Monica-USA
6/4/2015 03:41:57 am

Interesting thoughts Julie, looking forward to reading more.

Reply
Victoria
6/5/2015 08:58:30 am

I have always loved your work and own two of you books. Glad to receive this.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    See About.

    Archives

    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    June 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

JULIE LINDAHL © COPYRIGHT 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Photo used under Creative Commons from stavale8099
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • WRITING
    • Books >
      • The Pendulum >
        • English
        • Swedish
      • Rose in the Sand
      • Letters from the Island
      • On My Swedish Island
    • Columnist
    • Editor
  • STORYTELLING
  • POEMS & SHORT PROSE
  • CONTACT