“But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.” ~ Haruki Murakami

                   

Nepenthe:

(\ne-‘pen(t)-the\n)

1: a potion used by the ancients to induce forgetfulness of pain or sorrow

2: something capable of causing oblivion of grief or suffering

I’d like a bottle of forgetfulness at the moment. Things have been just way too stressful, and I’m approaching critical mass . . .

Music by David Gray, “Forgetting”

                   

Forget

Forget the suffering
You caused others.
Forget the suffering
Others caused you.
The waters run and run,
Springs sparkle and are done,
You walk the earth you are forgetting.

Sometimes you hear a distant refrain.
What does it mean, you ask, who is singing?
A childlike sun grows warm.
A grandson and a great-grandson are born.
You are led by the hand once again.

The names of the rivers remain with you.
How endless those rivers seem!
Your fields lie fallow,
The city towers are not as they were.
You stand at the threshold mute.

~ Czeslaw Milosz