Nothing Gold Can Stay

I've been thinking about entering the blogging world for a few years now but never got enough motivation to actually make it work until several weeks ago.  My friend, Jessica, is great with computers (whereas I struggle...immensely) so she helped me set this whole thing up.  So really all thanks to her I got this thing up and running (and looking pretty cute too, don't ya think?).  Here's a shout out to you, Jessica!

The title might seem strange and the poem might just seem like I'm trying to be all mysterious and not say what I mean so I'll explain the reason for the madness ;).  The poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" I first came across in the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when I was about 11 or 12  (If you haven't read this book go pick it up from the library today).  I have loved the poem ever since and memorized it so I would never forget it.  At first I really liked this poem because it was kind of depressing with the concept of nothing good can last and the gold fading away.  For some reason I have a fascination with dark and depressing things which has constantly bewildered my mother.  That aside though I also loved the imagery of dawn approaching and fading away, touching it's golden sunlight on the leaves and grass for just a moment.  Last summer I came back to this poem again, and started pondering and trying to give it a new meaning for myself.  As I realized that the poem was talking about a beautiful golden moment that only lasts an instant I became frustrated.  Why can this gold moment only last a moment?  Why can't it last longer?  Why can't you hold it and keep it forever?  What's the point of experiencing the gold if it only lasts those few seconds?  A few days later I came back to it and had my "ah-ha!" moment.  That's why it's gold.  Those moments are gold because they can't last forever, because they cannot be held onto.

I now attempt to recognize and remember those moments of gold I have in my life however simple or complex they appear to be.  One of my favorite gold moments was when I attended the Imagine Dragons concert last May with my lifelong friends Lisa and Michael.  I have gold moments when I walk down the street and see the sky, feel my baby girl kick inside me, talk with my mom on the phone, read a good book, or receive a grin from my husband.  These are my attempts to capture the gold and hold it in my heart because, after all, "nothing gold can stay".