A new word for me:
Rückkehrunruhe: The feeling of returning from an immersive trip only to notice it fading rapidly from your awareness, as if your brain had automatically assumed it was all just a dream and already went to work scrubbing it from your memory.
Is this a thing?
It’s never been one for me, probably because I spend a lot of time during and after a trip writing about my experiences.
In addition to writing about what I did, I also write about what I thought and felt. I document new ideas and surprising revelations. I do so during and after vacations, business trips, golf outings, and any other travel.
I did the same thing on the day after our wedding, capturing every moment and nuance I could remember so that 19 years later, I can read those stories — of which there are many — and feel like the wedding happened yesterday.
I also did the same for the day I proposed to Elysha, every day of our honeymoon, the day Clara and Charlie were born, and many more.
Whenever something important happens, I write incessantly — during, after, or both.
Between…
- Fourteen years of Homework for Life
- A daily blog post for nearly two decades
- A separate daily blog post written (and now printed in large volumes) to my children during the first six years of their lives
- A pile of handwritten journals
- Three unpublished memoirs
- Six years of humor columns
- More than 200 different stories told on stages all over the world
- Hundreds of partially written blog posts and notes about my life
… I am awash in memory.
When I look back, I see so much. While time slips away for many, I happily look back and can still see so much of my life with clarity and precision.
Rückkehrunruhe?
I don’t think so. Not for me, at least. Our memories are our most precious possessions. I cling to them with all my might.
I suggest you do the same.
