Blogging from A to Z April Challenge: N

Aging: The Good, the Bad, and the Tolerable

N is for Nostalgia

I have lived almost 82 years. A lot has happened in my life. And a lot of memories come flooding back with a deep longing to experience them again. Nostalgia, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past.

Feelings of nostalgia increase with age. Feelings of nostalgia for me are especially acute when I pass by places that I spent with my three grandsons: the playground in the park near Whole Foods, the mechanical rides on the main floor of our only inside mall, the turn-off that takes me to the school where the youngest had speech therapy, the movie theater where we would go when a movie could entertain all three grandchildren, and maybe a friend or two, a building in a strip mall that is now a fast food chain but used to be a Blockbuster where we rented Scooby Doo DVDs.

The boys are grown. I’m proud of them. But I miss my time with them when they were younger. It’s when the feeling of nostalgia is the strongest that I tell myself don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. (Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss).