Nothing ever went away

We usually think of time as a river, a river like the Nile, with strong, swift current bearing us further and further way from what we have been and towards the time when we will be not at all…But perhaps we should think of time as a deep, still pool rather than a fast-flowing river…Instead of looking back at time, we could look down into it…and now again different features of the past–different sights and sounds and voices and dreams–would rise to the surface: rise and subside, and the deep pool would hold them all, so that nothing was lost and nothing ever went away.

– from The Long Goodbye, Meghan O’Rourke

Thanks to my friend Carey for sending me this passage last month.  I had noted this passage when I read The Long Goodbye, but it was timely and perfect (of course) to re-encounter it when Carey sent it to me.

6 thoughts on “Nothing ever went away”

  1. How perfect is that? For better or worse, I am so much more in tune with the passage of time lately. Just yesterday in Target, I literally got teary eyes walking through the baby toy section because I didn’t need anything there!

  5. I haven’t read this book but I really like this passage and the metaphor of time as a river and the thought of a deep, still pool. Interestingly, this metaphor was put forward to me by my Occupational Therapist just a few days ago!

    I am yet to play with the idea myself but thought I would share it here as it fits so well. It’s called the Kawa Model – kawa being river in Japanese. In a nutshell, our life is a river from birth to death and you can take a cross section of your life at any point in the river and look more closely at it (thus the depth) and see what’s going on there and possibly make changes to affect the water’s flow.

    Thank you for posting this Lindsey, it’s inspired me to engage with the model and with more poetic depth.

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