Remembering the time that passed

I had a long drive today and decided to fill some of the time with a continuous review of the images I have pinned to my internal calendar to remember every day that passes.

A quick run through the whole lot from 17 December 2011 when I began this process. I led into this starting two years ago and recalling the few images I have for the period before then.

But I didn't get far because remembering took me back to that time around Christmas 2011 and moving into a new flat with my wife just before new year.

The memory tags I have reviewed so many times they are familiar to me, orientated me to remember so much more about those days and information ballooned, sometimes reminding me of another fact from the week before. It was not just remembering, it was inhabiting that time again.

Three hours later when I arrived at my destination, I had only reached early February 2012.

Before I sleep, I will do my lightning review to reinforce the images for the intervening time until today. Having them is so precious.

It doesn't take long.

Addiction

All of the methods I have been using to remember every day that passes remain true.

Reviewing the memory tags pinned to my mental calendar reinforces them. I am still running a two-day window over each week starting from two years ago (I have a lot of blanks until I reach 17 December 2011 - the day I began this process). For the last month, I go through every day.

If an image is elusive, I can find it by running through the images for surrounding days.

There are no plot holes - events must happen in order. This also helps me when I get lost.

Having a theme for a week or sequence of days is a short cut to recalling them.

Visualising the layout of the calendar in my mind's eye helps me to orientate myself and move from date to date.

Generally I run through the review as I am waking up, but sometimes this is not possible.

And so I realise I am addicted.

I have to complete the review before I go to sleep again. I find I can pick up where I left off easily enough during the day.

If I fail to complete the review, which has happened a few times, the next day I will cover three days per week for the missing period, or even run through the full sequence of days.

What also continues to be true is this process gives me a grounding sense of perspective and balance, which makes the effort worthwhile.

Though it uses mental space, it does not dominate my day, but gives me something to fill odd moments - and though I am addicted to the reviews, I rarely obsess over events or thoughts as I might have done in the past as they fit into the broader perspective.

Moving through the world

I have just spent some time in the city where my office is based.

We lived here for most of last year and I posted a blog on 8 February 2012 about how when I return to a place it becomes familiar as if I had never been away, while other places fade - until I visit those once more.

It struck me on this visit that this is no longer the case.

In my daily reviews of the images pinned to my mental calendar I check in on most of the places and people I have visited over the past 18 months (depending which days of the week I cover).

This gives me a sense of them continuing without me, of friends and family getting on with their lives.

When we made a weekend trip to visit friends, they had been in my thoughts virtually every day since we had last met as they appeared in different memory tags.

It makes the obvious clearer: although my viewpoint is always where I stand, I am a traveller moving through the world.

Where I stopped

Sometimes I wake up and have to get up.

I don't have time for my morning review of past days.

And so I try to fit in the review during free mental time I might have.

Today is Saturday, so I review all Friday and Saturday tags. The last time I will have reviewed Saturday tags, will have been last Sunday, that is six days ago.

If I have to break off this process, I now find it quite easy to pick up where I left off.

There is a difference between a tag already recalled once today and one recalled six days ago.


At the moment this is not a concern, because I haven't lost any tags.

But it may be telling me something about how memories fade as the time between reviews lengthens.