Summertime is here. It is time for flowers in bloom, baseball games, family get togethers, county fairs, and car shows. I went to a car show and became a bit homesick for the good old days of my youth.
My first car was a 1957 Chevrolet BelAir. I remember cruising the main street with my friends. My memory recalled a very idealized version of my friends. Today, we don’t wear bell-bottom jeans, and we have a lot less hair than we did back then. My high school friends are married and have grandchildren. I guess I’ll never be able to go back to that time and those places except in my memory.
The Welsh language has an interesting word that has no equivalent in the English language. The Welsh word is “hiraeth”. The word means a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was, the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for the lost places of your past.
This feeling of nostalgia and yearning for the past is very familiar to people throughout history. Some Israelites longed for the food of Egypt after they were freed from slavery. When the Israelites were in captivity in Babylon, they were nostalgic for the good old days when they worshipped in their temple.
It is common for us to be homesick for a person, place, or time in our past. I think it is a way to deal with the changes we go through in life.
One afternoon, a resident of an assisted living facility was looking at pictures from her past. Another resident joined her and asked her questions. Others joined in the conversation. It was a delightful way to remember the past and live in the present. The residents knew they would not be able to go back to those good old days. They didn’t really want to go back to them. The residents just wanted to share their memories. They found meaning in sharing their good old days with others.
It is good to remember the good old days. Those good old days brought us to today. Through all our days we are reminded that God loved us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).
Chaplain Jeff Meyers
