There are those that feel connected to the past, those that live for the day, and those that dream of the future. I’ve experienced all three at one time or another. The connection to the past is just nostalgia, a desire to relive the past, but only the good times in the past, the very best of the past. Living for the day, for right now, involves self preservation. Things is, today changes everyday and so it really holds no stability. Tomorrow , the future, is the unknown. The future is what we pray for, we pray for where will go, or for what it will be. For some the future holds nothing at all, it is just death, although I don’t believe that. believing everyone wants to continue, to go on in some fashion or form. That energy, our life force, our spirit, whatever you choose to label that will never be destroyed, it never ends. I believe we all have an awareness of that, even when we choose to ignore it. For it is also true the mind creates reality, our own reality. that we call belief. But I think in the final moments we will experience clarity, perhaps that is the light so often spoken of, the acceptance of truth. That is what peace is, the truth. Jesus said, ” I am the way, the truth, and the life”
 I believe we are looking for our place in this world. We search for something to hold onto. In all the hustle and bustle of everyday life we require that. We seek the place that brings us the most comfort, the most security. Sometimes it is the past that provides all of that. We take pride in our past, our heritage. We transpose that heritage into our everyday lives. The past can be a determent, or an asset. That depends upon what you extract from that past. Living for the day, for the moment, provides little stability. It leaves us in a state of flux. It’s a constant desire for appeasement. It’s exhausting and the reason for the unrest we witness in the world. It is the dream of the future that propels us forward.   The desire to make our dream a reality. It’s the same for all us, the only difference being the means we choose to accomplish that. Good and evil reside in that dream, in that future.
 In thinking about all of that I have decided I am just an itinerant in this world. I’m just someone passing through. I have decided that the future isn’t the end, just another path to travel. Life everlasting? That’s one view of that philosophy. I’m thinking that perhaps life doesn’t go on forever, at least not my life. That is, if life is nothing more than a memory. My energy will certainly travel forward, just in another vessel, leaving my memory behind. Having not discovered my purpose in life it’s my feeling I haven’t finished the journey. I need to keep traveling on, passing through as it where. Yes the bread crumbs have been left behind, the trail can be followed and I have amused myself in that endeavor. My purpose doesn’t reside in that past. As for today, it’s just another day, another milestone on the road, I’ll do what needs to be done, while preparing for what may lie ahead. The journey, indeed the road is uncertain, but that it goes on I have no doubt. What I don’t know is where I will leave my marker or what that marker is to be. Infamy or fame? The title or the footnote. Or will I just continue on unnoticed?
 I’m talking about being remembered. We all want to be remembered. I think that is a fair statement.  No one wants to be forgotten, to be left in the past. It is something I often say, as long as our name is spoken, we are alive. We are not forgotten. History has recorded many people of note, people that are not forgotten for their accomplishments, or their infamy. Still there are the nameless, the tens of millions that once lived and walked upon this earth, now forgotten. I watch the shows where scientists examine and analyze the skeletons of the past. They were living, breathing people, same as you and I. They surely had a name, a place and time. I’m as equally sure they had a wish to not be forgotten. And so for me I wonder, how long will I be remembered? How far must I travel?

                                                     How long remembered

Time and memory fade away
like mist in the morning
the burning of the sun
and the passage of time
how long remembered
these friends of mine

gray stones stand as sentinels
over their rest
a name two dates
marking the time
how long remembered
these friends of mine

waiting, waiting for the reward
lives well lived
lives forlorn
how long remembered
these friends of mine

I come to visit
I come to reflect
keeping them still alive
how long remembered
these friends of mine

who will come when I am gone
to pray among the stones
and contemplate my time
how long remembered
by these friends of mine

A.B. Reichart