I usually don’t sleep late – by late I mean after 5:30 – but staying up and reading into the late night – It was the sound of the birds not to mention the cat on my bed that got me up. And I remembered that I had not even looked at the mail from yesterday. Most of the mail is composed of pitches for this or that or some ad telling me I need senior living. I don’t think so!
But one piece of mail was totally unexpected and brought me back to memories of the summers I was sent to Alabama for a “vacation.” It wasn’t until I became a parent that I realized the real vacation was for my parents. The letter talked of an idealized time – growing up in a small town in the South – nostalgia plays tricks on the mind.
I’m sure parts of the South are different now, but I wonder what happened to the black families who lived around the bend and worked on the farms. When we reflect on our past, how do we see the need for reconciliation and change for the future?
Prayer for the Day
Gathering the elements of our lives, we try to bring them into place,
The blush of health, the pain of illness, the grief of loss;
Carrying our memories through the seasons of our lives
Made sacred by your presence and graced by your love.
Holy One, heal our hurts and lighten our burdens
So your Spirit may dwell within us.
In the name of him who heals our minds and spirits
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
He was still too young to know that the heart's memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and that thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.”
- Gabriel García Márquez, from Love in the Time of Cholera (1927-2014)
There are memories that time does not erase... Forever does not make loss forgettable, only bearable.”
- Cassandra Clare, from City of Heavenly Fire. American writer
I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds,
iI meditate on the works of your hands.
I stretch out my hands to to you;
My soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 143: 5-6