Nostalagia

Hiraeth totally sums up how I feel without my parents and grandparents. Hope they can see me and can see how much they are missed and remembered on a daily basis.

Anniebach thanks for the link to Hiraeth. Reading it I got tears in my eyes .

I often used to have a real yearning for my mum. When I was 29, married with 2 children, she and my dad moved a long way away from me (long story). It broke my heart as I wasn't able to see her very often and I would get these powerful yearnings for her. I have tears in my eyes just writing this now........... They both died a good few years ago but I'll never get over how I felt then and how much it hurts to just think back to those times

Squify, that is what hiraerth is, all those things yet more, hence it cannot be translated , a feeling within us we cannot put into words because there isn’t one which really explains , so many have tried to find a translation but only come near, there is that one thing for which there is no word in the English language

Annie Thank you for the link. I read the link and the explanation of homesickness, yearning, and longing. That comes really close, but there's still 'something' that I can't quite put my finger on!

The Welsh language has the word Hiraeth, it is assumed it means homesickness but it’s more , there is no English word it can be translated into

For anyone interested x

sites.psu.edu/kielarpassionblog2/2016/04/02/hiraeth/

Very interesting replies, thanks. The reason I asked is that I know that I personally cannot dwell on my happy or sad past life without getting too sad with sense of loss of times that are gone. I'm frightened of loss. I have to stop myself remembering and not dwell too much, but rather divert my attention to the present.

Asked my son that question and he and I agreed that it's bad to indulge in nostalgia if that means feeling sad about loss. He himself doesn't feel nostalgic loss, only nostalgic happiness, and he thought his brother is the same, old memories are happy memories.

I note that those of you who replied have a happy attitude to old times.

Happy memories but also a longing for what once was.

A mixture of life and how its events have touched me,some very happy moments and others ultra sad and others deeply poignant,where real life hits hard....... and those memories etched in your mind for ever

Poignant - that is a mixture of happy, sad and wistful.

Definitely happy memories!

Mostly happy memories - weird feelings of deja vu at times when I hear a certain record and often being 'back' in that moment from different periods of life. It's nice to share them with family and my other half who I've known since we were kids

Happy memories for me I often just sit quietly thinking and I sometimes look through all the old family photos enjoying letting my mind wander back there.