Those Things from Back Then

I sift through memories of the past and write them down, turning them into chapters and stories. You'll discover that the past is complicated, winding, and tangled. Looking back, none of it needed to happen that way, yet at the time, that's how things unfolded. That's life. When we reshape the past, we are always making choices: Can I write about it? Should I? Is it even necessary? Should I just write it anyway? We carry within us feelings that want to be expressed but don't know how, and things we want to let go of but can't... So writing may be a way of reflecting on the past, or perhaps of looking forward to the future. If life were to follow its original course all over again, it would become what is written in this book today, a mix of real stories and carefully added patches.

The wind chimes stirred by youth move us so deeply. Their arrival comes without warning, yet they are enough to set our hearts aflutter, quietly taking root deep within us. Beauty rises with our blood, as if frozen in that moment: an unexpected encounter, a beautiful view, you, so beautiful, and me, witnessing you and yearning for your beauty. Did you come here because of me? Whatever the answer, I came because you arrived.

The wind blows, and the diary has yellowed. That once “painful” beauty is the most beautiful “sorrow.” You didn't come when the flowers bloomed, and when they fell, I was still waiting. It was so beautiful, yet left no trace. You could see it, but you didn't pay attention. When you read me, I failed to understand you. That was my carelessness. In another time and place, I remain true to the beauty of that moment and bring up the past once more. Does it seem pale and powerless? No matter what, I am here today because of you.

Love is really just two hearts being cleansed as the flowers bloom, the right story happening at the right time, with you and me as its protagonists.

If our love is to last forever, what does it matter if we cannot be together every day? It's only because you are in my life!