Daily Cascade

Gifts of Memories

Prompt: Do you ever wish you could take your precious, cherished memories, wrap them up in tissue paper, put them in a big box with your Christmas Decorations then get them out at Christmas and relive them? How would it make you feel? Write about this in your Blog entry today.


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Such a fun prompt! But it is not me who'd wrap and put away cherished anything. Especially with such memories, I like them within my easy reach. Come to think of it, visiting them around Christmas would be nice, too. Anyway, around the Christmas table or on any other sorts of family gatherings, don't people always bring up the good memories and wonderful friends who are no more?

Memories, especially the cherished ones, mostly transport me to happy moments and make me smile on a hard day as they offer strength and clarity. Some of my memories --I guess this has to do with age - are very vivid; others are soft distant echoes of my bygone days, just as profound. Some of my beloved memories have to do with my grandmother's hugs in my difficult times or when I had done something she had approved.

Talking about my grandmother, in such an occasion when the whole family would be around the dinner table, she'd be the one to correct other people's memories. And when she got an objection, such as, "I remember it this way...," she'd say, "You memory is faulty. I lived the longest among all of you, here. Therefore, what I'm remembering is the correct version." Then, she'd top it off with one of her loud and happy laughters.

I learned from my grandmother that remembering is not a passive act, but it is honoring the past, its moments, and the people who have given meaning to my life. Thus, when I visit such a memory, its beauty lights up the present. It means its value wasn't just in those old cherished moments and remembrances, but in the ways I and others in my family have carried them forward with a deep gratitude for their existence.