Do you ever think about what your earliest memory is? I sometimes think about the past and what I can remember and try to see if my mind can go back farther in my recalling memories.
The earliest memory I can identify is as a toddler and I was using a thick black marker on a Donald Duck riding toy. I was coloring it and I thought I was improving the looks. I remember I did this outside because it was hot and bright and I remember the steps.
Why would I care about what my earliest memory is? I think it’s interesting to think about our consciousness. I have had experiences where my consciousness changed and for me, that was fascinating and fun. For example, when I was a teenager I had my wisdom teeth taken out and I was sedated for that. It was a beautiful experience to feel myself get sleepy and the distortion of the world. I remember looking at the dripping of the IV and thinking that each drop was like a waterfall. Then they seemed to slow down time and they feel and I realized that I had never experienced anything like this before. It was a fun and joyful moment. Then I remember waking up and feeling great.
Now you might say but the dental pain makes it not worth it to have that experience right? Not at all. I would value that experience even if the following experience was painful. However, I don’t recall it being painful. They gave me a handful of pills and while I couldn’t eat certain foods, I found the entire experience most pleasant.
No, I don’t enjoy pain, but to be honest, whatever pain I felt was less than the pain I had felt in my other experiences in life. At some point, pain is something you can ignore and while interesting doesn’t need to make you suffer. People who have chronic diseases talk about this. They talk about how they got used to pain, and that while they don’t like it, they accept it and recognize it is part of the healing/medical process.
Why am I sharing this? We can learn much from people who suffer, and from people whose lives seem to be less happy than our own. Being content in suffering is one of the stages of wisdom. Not that we encourage or want to suffer, but we recognize we will always suffer. Life will never present us with ideal conditions, or if it does it is for a short while. Not needing things to be perfect is part of being happy. We have to find ways to be happy no matter what else happens in life. Life isn’t just about us, and the sooner we recognize that the happier we are.