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Self-encouragement is different for each person. Some individuals, for instance, are encouraged through reading the Bible, or other religious books. Other individuals are encouraged through helping those who are in need. Still, others are encouraged by the beauty found in nature-such as a serene landscape, perhaps a beautiful sky scape, the mesmerizing sounds of ocean waves, and a host of other things in nature. Yet, personally, the memories of my life are what brings me the most encouragement.

Isn't it beautiful, even magical, how the memories of your life instantly take you back to a time in your life? If I ask you right now, for instance, to think back to your favorite childhood memory, I bet your mind takes you there instantly. Or, if I ask you to go back to the best year of your life, again, your mind takes you there instantly, and it's almost like you're there, right now-all over again. That we can do this is both wonderful and magical.

I love riding the memory waves, not only because memories take me back to a time I long to return to but also because it feels so refreshing to return there all over again. Such memories can be so vivid, so real-like, that it's almost like really being there again, in the flesh! That is why the happiest moments of my life (now that I am in my forties) are those moments during which I can be carried back by my memories to a time and place where the footprints of my life still linger. It is incredible to me how the human mind can do this.

One of my favorite memories (and one that I often return to) is that of growing up as a child in the small town of El Quemado, Texas, in the late sixties. I can take myself there at will any time I need encouragement or need to lift myself off the ground. And I love going there, in my memories, again and again and again, because it uplifts me and refreshes my being. You see, each time I am back there again, I see my dog Fido, and I hug him all over again, the way I used to do. And I kiss his nose, the way I used to do. And in return, Fido licks my face, and wags his tail, just the way he used to do whenever he saw me.

I can also feel the morning breeze that so often I looked forward to feeling brush my face, when I stepped out of the house in the mornings. It was a soft, fresh, soothing breeze that I could never get enough of - a breeze so pleasant that I made it a habit to wake up early on Saturday mornings just so that I could walk outside and sit down on the bench in our backyard, to enjoy that breeze and the sunshine that found its way through the Maple tree branches in our backyard. That experience, for me, was and still remains the closest thing to what heaven must feel like.

Such beautiful memories bring joy to my life. And, I am encouraged. I am encouraged to be grateful for all that I have been fortunate to experience in life; I am encouraged to be thankful for all the things that I have enjoyed in life-and I am encouraged by the beautiful memories that have always magically carried me back in time to a place I miss and yearn for.

My memories, the mental photographs-the evidence-of the history of my life, is all I have now to remind me that I once lived in the past, and that I was there in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. That I saw the passing of one century and the dawn of another. And that all of it was forever recorded in the memory bank of my mind. For these memories, I am grateful.

Will you allow your memories to carry you back in time? You'll be glad you did, if you do. And, hopefully, you'll be as encouraged as I have been.

Learn more about this author, Roman Del Bosque.
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