Yesterday’s somewhat haunting post was prompted by an old memory that had resurfaced unexpectedly after many years. Given the intensity of the original experience, I’m surprised that it had never surfaced before.
Then again, perhaps that’s exactly why this memory had never surfaced. After all, if our most intensely emotional memories were to pop up all the time, it’s hard to see how we could get through the day.
Yet I have a feeling that this and other powerful memories lie not all that far below the awareness of the conscious mind. Like silent creatures of the deep, I suspect they circle slowly about in the seas of our subconscious, biding their time, waiting for just the right moment to resurface.
Perhaps this explains those odd feelings we all get from time to time of unexpected anticipation, fear, excitement or dread. They could be the traces of old memories waiting to be summoned, silently warning us that they may, at any moment, come back into our lives.