Distant memories. I have often thought that the best invention in the world would be the invention which would capture your memories as you see them, like a built in brain video camera. Trying to describe what pops into your head at the slightest scent or sound, as it fills you entirely with memories of the past.

As I sit in the backyard, surrounded by houses, roads, street lights and a soft glow from my own house, the sound of the crickets and trucks on the highway is all I hear. I am not sure why the summer of my 34th year of life is bringing back these memories of a childhood long since past, but it is. I am immediately transported almost 30 years into the past, laying in my bed, a child, window open, nothing but farm around me and the sounds that I hear are crickets and trucks on the highway. The high pitched chirp of the crickets and the low drone of semis miles away from our home. The comfort I feel from my mom and dad and brothers sleeping peacefully, grandparents and aunt and uncle just 30 steps away, and the knowledge that all is perfect in the world. It is summer, no school tomorrow, no worries except whether to fish at the creek with Jon or go meet Jenny at the big tree, the happiest days of my life.

Though I am not complaining about my life today, richly fulfilled, wonderful friends a great career, my family still living, all my needs in life met, there is something to be said for the simplicity of life as a child. Days when time went by so slowly that it seemed that summer would never end, and I would certainly never grow up. Now as I sit here, 34 years old in my own home, one brother gone from this earth, all my grandparents long ago slipped out of this world and into the next, trials, tribulations, successes and failures, it is amazing to me that the sound of crickets an trucks on the highway can so easily take me back to those days long ago.

More than simply remembering, I feel I am literally transported to another time and place. It feels as if I concentrate hard enough, I am once again in my little green room, window open, the breeze on my face and the sound of crickets and trucks on the highway.

I know many others in the world have had the same experience in their life. That little something that all of a sudden, makes you forget who you are now, and takes you to a completely different place in your life. Memories are a gift from God given to us as humans to use throughout our lives. The ability for us to capture these moments in time and later recall them, simply by sound or scent years later, is a gift indeed.

I am sure I am not the only one who wishes that there was truly a way to allow others in our lives to feel what we are feeling when this happens. So as I sit outside listening to the sounds of long ago and a sense of peace overwhelms me, I only hope that you can appreciate a little more, the sound of crickets and trucks on the highway.