Begin with the Prayer of Abandonment

Today’s theme is “Memories.” How often do you take time to make memories, in an intentional way, with the one you love?

Think back … before the laughter and music of Christmas and Thanksgiving, beyond the sweetly smelling piles of burning autumn leaves (if such a nostalgic scent isn’t outlawed where you live), past a fresh-from-the-garden bite of peach. What memories of your love come most vividly to mind?

Memory is the playground of the heart, like dreams — only better. Shared memories bind us together, shaping who we are not just as individuals, but as family. (As an adoptive parent, I take comfort in this idea – that the memories we share can bind us just as surely and permanently as markers of DNA.)

In one of my favorite movies about life after life, What Dreams May Come, the intertwined lives of the family, their memories, connected them in death. Although it would be an overstatement to say the movie reflects a Catholic understanding of the afterlife, it does call to mind the love that can be transmitted and sustained through the power of memories cherished.

What memories can you share with your beloved, to build up and sustain your love?