virtually here - or there

Ah, the wonders of modern technology! My  body and I hope my mind are in Quincy, Massachussets (pron. Quinzey, for Canadians who don't know better), celebrating my daughter and son-in-law's 30th wedding anniversary and also Easter, recognizing 40 years since my husband died.  Everyone has a milestone.  Milestones are hard. I'm a this-time-last-year kind of person. The longer I live the more this-time-whenever milestones there are and the more memories crowd in.  They're pleasant enough but sometimes the contrast with the present can be painful, carrying a reminder that things used to be better than they are now, or seemed so.  Well, but would you want to go back?  Probably not.  No matter how pleasant the screen shot of the past looks, you know that out there on the periphery, beyond your sight lines,  are worries and pressures you have chosen to forget, or perhaps have overcome and legitimately forgotten.  Were you really as happy as you looked?  Are you now?  No matter. One thing I have learned: cherish the moment.