2006, November 20: Thanks for the Memories
(November 20, 2006)
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
I have a place in my house that is my little corner of the “house world.” I clean my guns there; store ammo and things that have little value but are priceless to me. I tinkered this past weekend and picked up a few of those priceless items. An old knife I rescued from my grandparents cabin in Canada before it was sold. It took me back to the Canadian sunsets when we would dock our boats, carry in our catch and, as a 14 year old, I would filet the whole batch before the best shore dinner you can imagine. For a minute or so I was back in the cabin proudly commanding that knife as the fastest” fileter” around!
Next to it was the knife my dad had in his tackle box that I first remember in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. We were fishing off a balcony in a 19th century hotel in Estes Park. It was June and it had just begun snowing. Nothing had changed except electricity and running water since the westward movement. I pick up this knife and suddenly it’s 56 years ago.
And there was his watch – his treasure my mom bought him and which I sometimes wear when the occasion fits.
OK, so enough private reminiscing. I am going somewhere with this and if you let it happen, you probably thought about the little connections you have which take you back in your life. What do you have among your keepsakes that connect?
These are icons – they transport us. Not to the heavens as religious icons were intended but to the little heavens of our life; or our private hells. But you can choose where you wish to be transported. It’s the choice we make when we look backward.
This week is Thanksgiving and you will make the choices for which you will be grateful. Or not. You can choose the things of the past that will enrich and fortify you today and the things of the present that you take for granted. You can do it with family all around you or you can do it alone in a cruiser or behind a desk. It is the great tool of choice that God has given us and perhaps for which we should be most grateful. It was He who told us He sets before us life and death and then said choose life. It is choice that allows us to keep the gold of the past, the riches of the present, and move out of the painful hells of our lives. It is choice that opens hearts that have been hardened by pain, unfairness and failure.
So wherever you are this Thanksgiving choose wisely and be truly thankful because grateful people are a lot better to be around.
Stay safe and you have been prayed for.
