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--> --> Aug. 8: Filing those soul-feeding memories By Patty Perrin It is a magnificent sunset, the colors and clouds perfect as we stand under the ever-changing spectrum. "I'm going to file this one away," my friend says softly. "What do you mean?" I ask. "Oh, I have a special place where I keep soul-feeding memories. And then when I am where I would rather not be, like in the dentist's chair, or waiting in the hospital, somewhere under stress, I take one of the scenes out and look at it again. It helps." What a wise woman! I too need such a file, a place I can go during the hard times. It can change memories from being beloved baggage into an asset that collects dividends. Joy I am 5 years old, running across a meadow through a field of tiger lilies. I am alone. The flowers are as tall as I am. I twirl in delight before throwing myself down on a bed of fern under the blue, fluffy white sky. Security I am sitting on Mother's lap as she reads me a story. I am resting my head on the pillow of her bosom as she users her special reading voice to tell me about people and worlds I do not know. Power I am standing on my back porch that is cantilevered over a cliffside on the Columbia River. The sound and strength of the rushing water fill my whole being. I am little, but I realize that there is something very big and powerful in charge of things. Thrill I smile at the excitement of falling in love for the first time. The delight that begins at the day's first awareness and permeates my whole life. It is physical, beginning somewhere deep inside. It takes over my every thought and I constantly feel a silly grin threatening to break loose. Creation With the birth of my first baby I know I have, for the first time in human history, made a baby. It is astounding, remarkable and frightening. I am Mother Earth. Later babies, special and wonderful, never evoke the awe of the feel of those first tiny fingers. Genealogy A generation later, when I am given grandchildren I realize that I will live forever. The grandchildren and I are essential to each other. They would not exist without me having been here and I see in them timelessness, my passage to ancestry. Magnificence On the desert just before day break there is a silence as the world holds its breath. The breeze is soft, and the birds are testing their voices. Slowly a promise of color shows on the vast, flat horizon, before exploding into a spectrum of apricot and scarlet. Splendor fills the sky and reflects on the mountains, ushering in another day's beginning. Awe The full moon and the Taj Mahal are forever linked. The dry night breeze of India blows cold during the winter as I watch a full moon. The monument's stone absorbs the luminescence. The marble comes alive. All else is obscured by its glow in the reflecting pool and the river beyond. The world stops to marvel at such beauty. Peace Unexpected contentment is found on a November drive on a lonely back road. It is the first snow of the season. I feel as if I am meeting an old friend. The flakes are soft and lie easily on the trees, looking as if some great hand is shaking a sifter above them and transforming all the world into a powdery, pristine wonderland. Epiphany I find a balance between worlds in an airplane flying through the Hindu Kush Mountains of Asia. A group of expatriates is returning in a chartered DC6 from the northern part of Afghanistan to our homes in Kabul. It has been a noisy party day. Suddenly everyone is silent. I look out the window and see that we are not flying over the jagged mountains but are going through them. The menacing snow-covered peaks are on both sides of the airplane. I can almost touch them. It is sunset and the world is transformed. Blue, mauve and pink engulf us as we fly surrounded by wondrous beauty wrapped in the possibility of sudden death. I feel no fear but only the fullness of the moment. Patty Perrin lives in Ashland and writes a monthly column for the Tidings. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing