Remembering
June 10, 2016 by J.B. -
It’s often said that healing is not a matter of forgetting, but of accumulating new memories that, over time, crowd out the bad ones.
If this is true, then Negra’s road to recovery began by replacing memories of powerlessness with ones of safety and predictability.
Soon, memories of love and friendship and family began to replace memories of loneliness.
Eventually, memories of courage and adventure pushed aside memories of fear and anxiety.
For some chimps, recovery is a long, steep climb. Thirty-five years in the lab leaves behind far too many memories.
Those memories will never be forgotten. But every time I see Negra absorbing the view from the top of Young’s Hill, I think of how far she’s come in these last eight years, and I hope that moment becomes yet another healing memory that pushes an old one further out of reach.
8 Comments
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Love this post! Oh Negra, so thankful you are now safe and loved… She holds a special place in my heart ????
Beautifully put JB. I hope all seven of the chimps are able to use a new memory to keep an old one from surfacing too often. They are lucky to have y’all to help create new memories and know how much they’re loved. Thank you.
Warms my heart and breaks my heart. You are doing such wonderful work helping them build newer better memories. Thank you and everyone there who make everyday brighter for them.
Oh J.B.! Eloquent, beautiful and perfectly stated. Oh dear Negra, I love her so. Eight years is such a short time to have come so very far. I am astounded and deeply touched everyday by each chimps brave awakenings and steady progress. I could not do the same. The word “resilience” does not even come close to expressing the amazing capacity of love, strength, and forgiveness that lies within each of their hearts.
Can’t say any more than what has been so beautifully said. Would that we could, Negra is the one that needs and deserves the extra hugs. But with the others all next, of course.
Eloquent, indeed. A beautiful post. These latest stories of Negra choke me up and warm my heart.
Powerful thoughts and pictures J.B. Thank you for this post.
Everyone before me has said it all so well.
Thank you for all you do for the chimps and improving their quality of life.