Sitting With Memories

“Sometimes you won’t know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
Thank you, Dr. Seuss.

You and I are memory collectors. We live one day at a time, experience that day in people and events and varied encounters, and at the end of the day we say we have lived. Tomorrow we will do it all over again. But somewhere along the line, we realize that life is more than a collection of experiences. We realize the basic truth of what Dr. Seuss said: it takes reflection, thoughtful consideration of experience to give it meaning. I never realize the deep meaning of beauty, expressed in that rose, until I sit with it in reflection and appreciation. Most often that happens when I reflect on the memory of seeing it. You and I are memory collectors and the value we assign to our days comes when we think deeply about them, replay the moments in the reflective light of spiritual values, like compassion, truth and mercy. Moments not considered, not assigned value in reflection, are lost in time. Ah, but when I remember the rose, recall how it glistened in the warm sun, how that amazing fragrance filled the air, then even for a brief moment, I reinforce beauty in the world and in my little life.

I write this for two reasons. First, I am committed to a spiritual journey that says you and I know God best when we remember, in reflection, sometimes in hindsight, the wonders of God we experience each day. A sudden revelation of God in the moment is breathtaking, but for most of us, the amazing grace and love of God is felt in the sorting of moments in prayer or spiritual reflection. It is in the appreciative, quiet moments of remembering that I identify deep, profound value and sense the living presence of The Sacred. Second, deep human relationships become the source of amazing joy, strength for the moment, hope in darkness when two people practice the presence of God by sorting common memory in the light of God’s unfailing reality. On this particular day, I am sorting through sixty-four years of memories collected with the one person who has held my hand along the way and who, God willing, will walk by my side as the journey continues. May we all live each moment with hope and spiritual integrity. May you experience the amazing grace of God as you sit with the memories that have shaped your life, giving thanks to God.