My neighbor, Ellen, usually asleep in the daytime, grabbed her camera to photograph this recent morning sky. Today's wonderful breezes are most welcome!
This morning I am listening to a radio host who is notorious for saying things like "I have never seen anything like this before in my life", or asking "have you ever seen this before in your life?" of his co-hosts. Of course, they have to agree with him, in order to assist him in making the point, but he is likely overstating it. This time perhaps not overstating since he was speaking of the butchering done on the street in London, in broad daylight, with folks failing to intervene. Can you say 'gun free zone'?
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Anyway, you think of things that have happened in your own life, thinking you will never, ever forget those things as long as you live. And you are determined not to forget---yet, somehow, the memory of the specifics fade. The names and faces escape. That which was so prominent in our minds and hearts has moved back further into the seldom-summoned memory storage.
In cleaning out a dresser drawer the other day in search of something else, I came upon a packet of cards, etc., in a zip-sealed plastic bag in which a prescription had come. Date? 2005! In this packet were old credit cards, punch cards for shops and restaurants (many which no longer exist), frequent shopper cards from the area bookstores, and calling cards. What a trip down memory lane this became!! Not so much a special attachment to the credit cards (no reason to keep them either!), but the calling cards-the business cards-had a special place in my memory. My 'old' painters, wall paper guys, tile installers, other tradesmen with whom we'd done business at one time.
I had not thought of these fellows in ages and ages, and yet they were at one time very important in my business and personal life. Many of these guys watched my boys grow up. Or stood in line for over an hour to greet us at the funeral home, walked up our sidewalk with hams or a plant for us, took the afternoon off to attend a funeral service in a crowded church for our little guy. At the time, I thought I would never forget them. Their kindess remains fresh to me, but their names and faces have faded from my memory.
I don't think the fading is intentional or an accident---this is from God. He stores those things away from us so we move forward and do not dwell in sorrowful places. Those heavy thoughts are replaced in the front of our memories with more pleasant, more pleasing ones, and for that I am most grateful. It is also no accident to find things like this little packet of momentos which allow us to recognize just how far we've come. Thank you for that, dear Lord!
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