Aunt Catherine Tries to "Move On."

You've read my "lament" in the previous blog below and you may be wondering how Old Aunt Catherine has managed to live long enough to post a blog, let alone understand what it even is. Well, Aunt Catherine didn't spend all of her time stirring the sauce. As the children grew, and I found myself with more and more spare time, I learned the secrets of quantum mechanics and eventually decided to rebuild my broken life in the year 2010. (Take that, Stephen Hawking.) My thinking is: If I fail, it's only two short years to 2012.

As I sat at the kitchen table with my sister, Theresa, she began to tell me that I should "move on." Everyone was offering nearly identical advice: "move on, move on, move on." "Get a fresh start." "You'll feel better in a new location."

Really? Even with the laws of quantum physics at my disposal, how does one forget? Time and space are irrelevant when your memories still haunt you. You may be able to temporarily fill the days with new adventures to soothe your broken heart, but how does one delete the thoughts that wake us in the middle of the night? Those thoughts which man (or woman) has no control over. The memories of children running down the hall at 5 a.m. on Christmas mornings, of family beach vacations, of gatherings of friends in the home you no longer live in, and the stabbing pain of your precious pet going to his rest. No matter what you do in the present or future, the past will wake you in the night. The real trick is to find a way to turn that intense pain into pleasant memories rather than the hollow ring of knowing that you will never experience them again. Does a mastery over time and space help? No.

No matter what you do, no matter what you learn, the moments that make memories continue to be fleeting. Any advice, Mr. Hawking?