Remembering Well

It’s my birthday month! Every year, my birthday is filled with doing whatever tickles my fancy and this year was no exception. Much of my special day was spent bringing birthday cake to friends. It was so much fun surprising people with an entire cake pan of delicious goodness! A day-long celebration full of cheer and selfies with all those with whom I shared the day was exactly what I desired. Dinner out and a rousing game of Yahtzee rounded out a wonderfully memorable day!

Celebrating all the accomplishments and the gratefully minor trials of the past year is an exercise in remembering well. Our memories can surely be a gift whether they conjure up happy feelings, sad feelings, or even feelings of dread. Memories hold truths and lots of life lessons if we allow them to be that for us.
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“Remembering well” is a matter of sitting with our memories and discovering what they want to teach us in the moment. Just like all lessons in life, memories hold different meaning at different stages of life. While my memories of a somewhat strict upbringing may have been rife with feelings of animosity when I was in my early 20s, those same memories bring me a sense of gratitude now that I’m in my 50s. In my earlier years, the boundaries that were set when I was growing up felt repressive and maybe even excessive. As someone who has matured and can see the bigger picture, I now see that those boundaries placed in me a sense of responsibility and restraint that has boded me well in life.

This is what remembering well looks like. Placing our memories in the larger context of our entire lives to this point. Even the memories we’d prefer to forget that may be filled with abuse or betrayal have something to teach us. Remembering how it felt to be lied to or mistreated in any number of ways hopefully results in not wanting to inflict the same painful feelings upon others. We know what it’s like and if we “remember well” we will be very conscious about our treatment of others especially those whom we love the most.

My hope for you is that, when you sit with your memories, you can do so with an open mind and heart taking in the lessons they hold for you today. May remembering well lead you to new understanding and a sense of peace that all your memories are worth holding.