The past feels best until the present turns into the past. We like to reminisce, and that’s why yesterday often feels beautiful. The past feels easy mostly because the hard parts don’t stand out anymore.
I like to reminisce, but I don’t let it outweigh what I have today.
It’s easy to look back and remember only the good parts. The laughs. The familiar routines. The people as they were, not as they changed. Memory edits things for us. It softens edges, removes stress, and leaves behind something easier to hold.
When we think about the past, we’re not remembering it as it happened. We’re remembering it knowing how it all turned out. There’s comfort in that. The ending is already known, and that makes the whole thing feel safer than the present, where everything is still unfolding.
The present doesn’t have the advantage of distance. It feels heavier because we’re living inside it. We notice the problems more clearly. We feel pressure to make sense of things, to make the right choices, to keep moving forward. None of that exists in memory.
That’s why today often feels less beautiful than yesterday. Not because it is, but because it hasn’t been processed yet.
We also tend to confuse the past with a time when life felt lighter. Many moments we miss weren’t easier or better, they’re just no longer demanding anything from us. We remember them without pressure, without decisions to make, without the weight of living them in real time.
The truth is, today carries the same kind of beauty yesterday once did. It just hasn’t had time to be remembered properly. The small conversations, ordinary evenings, and quiet moments we overlook now are the ones we’ll miss later.
Reminiscing isn’t a problem. It only becomes one when it convinces us that everything good is behind us.
I still look back. I just don’t stay there. I try to notice what today is offering before it quietly becomes something I wish I had appreciated more.
The present doesn’t need to be perfect to be worth holding onto. It just needs our attention.