I am sitting in front of my picture window, one of many in this house, watching my dogs play in the yard and the birds getting their fill at the bird feeder. A cup of hot green tea is patiently steaming in a delicate robin’s egg blue Royal Albert china tea cup. The saucer it sits on is a blue and white willow china saucer gifted to me from my father’s great aunt many years ago. The sets don’t match and I don’t care. The tea is even more delicious to me with the knowledge that the cup and the saucer hold lots of memories. How many times have they been used to comfort, to soothe, to warm up a chilly soul? How many hands have lovingly cared for them, washed them in soapy warm water, softly drying them and putting them back in their place of honour? I love thinking about these things as I sip my tea and watch the world outside.
Some memories are worth keeping, beautiful, full of grace, full of joy and compassion and love and those I hold onto and cherish. Some memories are not worth keeping: they poison the soul, they have the ability to shift a person from joyful to joyless, they are a heavy weight to carry. Know this, holding onto memories, good or bad, is a choice but I ask you this. Why would you hold onto a memory that makes you feel bad? You deserve more than that my friend, choose love, choose joy, choose YOU!
Now go, be fearless. Jan
