Change Is Good

The past is restless. History, like individual memory, is not fixed.  It is constantly revived. This sentence comes from The Nine: The True Story of a Band of Women who Survived Nazi Germany. It stuck with me.

I have read countless books about the Holocaust and many historical novels, but this one is a true story told through the eyes of the survivors, their writings, and their children. The bravery of these women and their need to survive speaks volumes.

The sentence that I wrote down speaks to all of us. We all have our own baggage and history that changes over time as we reflect on what makes us who we are today. Nothing stays the same; as we return to the past, we can look at events and learn from them with new eyes each time.

Most of these women never discussed what happened to them, as it was a different time. People were expected to move on, compartmentalize their feelings, lock them up, and return to what was before. Locking those experiences in a box affected their relationships as a wife, a mother, and a friend. Some of their children had no idea about their journey until they passed yet when they found it, their relationship was better understood.

I love change. I have worked hard at understanding the baggage I carry around, but each time I return to parts of it, I look at it with a new set of eyes because time and memory change. I embrace every day and continue to learn from the past. I am going to keep that sentence around. It is a good one.