Oh Mary Poppins, What Shall I Choose to Remember?

Sharing our own stories and listening to others.  This season of remembrances and reflection bring out laughter, old pictures, funny stories and sometimes sorrow.  I cried through “Saving Mr. Banks” on a date with Mr. Bridges last night, feeling so much compassion for that little girl who loved her daddy and so painstakingly tried at all costs to protect her memories and skewed realities as she preserved them in a childlike sugar coated fashion.  I saw a picture posted on FB by a past student of one of my own father’s 6th grade classes and notes about how we was a favorite teacher.  My own beautiful children currently building their memories and childhood that will last a life time.  What will stand out to them?  Have I done enough?  Have I been who they need me to be? Will it really matter as they will choose to remember the way they wish?

How can we choose the best memories fashioned in neat and tidy little boxes to recall and to have and to hold forever?  How do I have compassion and tenderness and survive the emotional sensitivity?

What will my precious children in my village remember when they are grown?  What memories will they coat with kindness to survive the harsh physical realities that surround them?  Will they remember tenderly the moments shared around a family coffee ceremony with tiny little cups and the abundance present when sugar, salt or butter are offered as condiments?  Will they hear the synchronized breathing of family members when startled at night and choose to hold tightly the feelings of  being close together rather than the cool mud floor or the howling heard through the walls?  What about soft popcorn seeds clutched in a tiny pocket shared with friends at school as a treasure that is not always afforded at all seasons, will the memory be gentle or will they coddle the sense of starvation?

Everyone must process and share uniquely in how they give notice to their memories.  Some may more easily shut them out, see them in glistening form and some may not pay any attention at all.  I suppose for me I remember my own struggles and memories and must process for myself what I am going to do with them and how I’m going to let them influence me for today.   I often clearly see the pains others hold from times past making their current existence cloudy.  I also have the opportunity in helping shape the memories today of others around me like my children by birth and my children in the village, memories to last a life time.

While at one time, studying psychology, I suppose I set out to help others make way through the journey from whence they had come.  After 10 years in business and 14 years of parenting myself, I have decided to help make the most of the present, as that I all I can truly do.  Action.  Taking action.  Helping bring life where there is pain and sharing the LOVE of the only one who can truly soothe our hearts with His compassion, tenderness, gentleness and inclusiveness.  Yes, he wants all of us.

Anyway… this week I am taking delight in sheep.  Because of my friends who share gifts with me to pass onto our families, we are sending a Christmas delicacy, a big sheep dinner, food and special treatment.  I think this is one of the only ways I have found to salve the painful tenderness I have to the stories of others.  Share.  Give.  Make a difference for a current need and build a treasured moment and memory for others that will last a lifetime.  I must.  It’s the privilege he has given to us with the ability to make wonderful love happen in the present.

Choose to delight and sugar coat a memory that once was sour.  Choose today to make a precious memory for someone else that will last forever.  Choose Love.