Memories: The River Remembers

Echoes of the past. I have recently returned from Colorado. While I was there, I visited for the first time in years a location that had been a favorite while we lived in Colorado. I fished it often with friends, but it was also I location where I frequently camped, and fished, with my son. Some great memories.

I went back, accompanied by one of my oldest and best friends. There was much I remembered and in many ways the river was largely unchanged. But the details…the details were blurred and faded. We ended up fishing in what had been our favorite spot when my son was young. The fishing was as excellent as it had ever been. What I wasn’t prepared for was the impact of catching a fish again in the very same spot where I had years before with my son. I wasn’t prepared for the cascade of memories – of him playing in the river, his laughter, him catching fish.

We carve out moments into our memories like rivers carve out canyons such as the one I had been standing in: slowly but relentlessly until they become a part of us forever. There was much I remembered and relived today with the help of the river. I hadn’t forgotten, I just needed the river to remind me.

– C. H. Daniels