(GIFT inside) Preserving Moments, Preserving Leaves

A short essay on preserving moments like we preserve leaves with a gift to help you reflect and breathe by looking back at your most precious ones.

Have you noticed how flowers have the magical power to brighten up a room? I haven’t bought them in a long time, and made a mental note to pick up a bouquet soon during my walk yesterday.

A lot of people choose to brighten up their space with plants as opposed to flowers. They feel sad to see a flower die in their homes after a couple of days, and choose to nurture a plant instead.

But flowers wither and die in the wild too. We still try to hold on to their beauty as long as possible despite knowing this.

Perhaps we have forgotten how, in the yesteryears, it was common practice to preserve leaves and flowers that mattered to us between the pages of a book. Drying a leaf/flower between the pages of a book would prevent it from decaying by slowly drawing out the moisture with the help of pressure.

I have a rose that has been preserved between the pages of a book - it’s now a crepe-like, paper-thin piece of organic matter. Gone are its fragrance, multiple dimensions, stem, and leaves.

But, just like the moments we carry in our hearts long after they’ve passed, I still regard my preserved specimen as a rose. That is what I remember it as, even if it has lost many elements along the way.

Photo by Tirza van Dijk on Unsplash

Moments are similar to freshly-picked roses: You have to savour them while they’re happening, before they slip through your fingers like grains of sand.

You can start by asking yourself what it felt like to hold someone special’s hand, and walk down the street, for example. The feeling of their hands in yours, the sound of their voice, and the fragrance of their skin are probably still there, stored as faint/vivid memories….

I fondly remember the times I stood on stage and sang Bollywood hits with my brother at community events and parties years ago. Oh, the fun we had!

The energy from the audience, the lilt of the music, and the lyrics we brought to life with our voices never leave me, even if the chances of us being on stage together are minimal to non-existent now. When the audience sang along, we’d have a greater time (and believe me, they sang along a lot).

These are the moments I am afraid of forgetting. These are the moments I reflect on when I forget what being good at something feels like, and look back on when I’m feeling sad or alone.

Reflecting on them prior to writing this post has shown me what it’s like to be alive, and what sharing happiness through art feels like. Because art, just like hope and faith, sustains us in the darkest moments.

It’s why we take pictures, paint canvasses full of colours, and write lyrics, poetry, and stories. Every moment can become a memory if we choose to consciously preserve it.

I have chosen to preserve my precious concert moment by writing about it, and adding a photo from my files to the journal entry.

I have made you a little gift to help you safeguard your memories below.

Now, you too can preserve precious moments like leaves/flowers in books. You too, can look back at your dried roses and remember who gave them to you, on which day, and why. Even when the fragrance of the rose has left it.

And you too shall have something to brighten your day when everything else seems lost, sad, or grey.

So, stick a picture, draw that memory, or write a poem about your favourite moment in the empty space on the special pages I’ve shared. Allow yourself to experience that time and place again by closing your eyes, and writing down every feeling it evokes in the lines below.

What were the lessons, the smiles, and the moments of speechlessness? What were the words you exchanged, and when did your heart skip a beat? Did a tear roll down your cheek, or an arm hold you from falling? What was the hardest part of the moment? Be sure to write that too.

When you’ve finished reflecting, take a deep breath, and bring back your thoughts to the present with gratitude for the past.

You can always do this reflect and breathe exercise by keeping your pages filled with memories at hand :)

With gratitude,

Raksha