The 1st of March is finally here. My Dad has taken, now the weather has improved, to walking up to the church at the end of the lane near where he lives each day. It is just a nice distance, once round the graveyard and then home. It has led to a regular evening conversation on the phone that goes something like this. "Do you remember so and so who used to live at the end of the lane years ago." "Yes I do, the family had a Labrador dog and a tabby cat." "I can't remember that but they had a Rover car." "Yes he grew vegetables and always had bonfire going in the garden." "That's the one, he had a little cheerful wife." "Yes I remember her now, how are they?" "Dead, I saw their grave in the graveyard." "Oh dear." I'm really not sure how uplifting these walks are turning out to be but at least it keeps him fit and he is enjoying admiring all the spring flowers coming to life.
However these evening conversations have made me realise another thing. Our brains are full of snippets of information we have stored there over the years. Sometimes I think everything is there just waiting for something to remind us of them and they come to the surface. Except maybe how to solve maths problems. I think that may have gone forever! Little things we store away about people and things that happen throughout our life, put in a box in our brain marked "Save For Later" Whenever I look at flowers starting to bloom at this time of year and little shoots coming through I remember a poem we would recite at school about spring.
A Spike Of Green
When I went out
The sun was hot
It shone upon
my flower pot.
And there I saw
A spike of green
That no one else
On other days
The things I see
Are mostly old
Except for me.
But this green spike
So new and small
Has never yet
Been seen at all.
