I remember the day we burned so much “old stuff” at home – school notes, tons of test scripts, scribblings from 6-year-old selves, Sunday school manuals, tattered textbooks, old dresses that could not be passed on, an obituary pamphlet of a young man who died crossing a highway, odds, and ends of a life once lived. It was fun to relive moments and memories (that moment is now a memory), but sad to let some of these things go. I remember it starting out as very spontaneous and exciting but easily became strenuous, but it had to be done, the “baggage” had to be cleared out for new beginnings.

Dad started a fire and we had to keep it burning by throwing more and more stuff. I watched as it slowly burned, this hungry fire, devoring times and memories, leaving only charred remains of the past. In the end, we celebrated a clearer space and clearer minds.

My parents tell me of neighbors retiring and moving away, and new people moving in. Iya Oyibo, who lived next door, just died, and all I could think of were the framed pictures on her living room wall – pictures of her younger self and of a family that once called that space home. Everything keeps changing, and that is the nature of time, the nature of life.

Our lives are a palimpsest – building blocks of memories. Time breaks down and builds up and we can only hold on to things for so long. Cherish the moments you are in now, these moments become memories quicker than we can catch. The past is in our minds and nothing ever stays the same.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023 | 12:35pm