Thanks for the Memories

 January 30, 2012

(This was to have been my last column for Jackson Citizen Patriot however it didn’t get published so I’m posting it here.)
Why is it so hard to let go of “stuff.”  I’m not a candidate for the reality show on hoarders.  One can easily walk from room to room in my home with only an occasional pile of books to step over.  Still I have boxes of stuff in my home, the accumulation of a lifetime.  I have toys, homemade cards, stuff I’ve written from my childhood stored away in an old roll top desk, memories of a person I can hardly recognize, much less remember.  I have papers written in college that impress me at how smart I once was.  That person is long gone.
And then there is my children’s memorabilia.  Not just pictures and cards they made for me, but each has their own store of treasures, kept at my house.  I’m as loath to throw these out as I am to throw out my own.
What is it about these that has me trapped, keeps me from letting them go while others pitch and toss with no regrets?  Perhaps it’s the memories attached to each item, memories that only come back when I pick up a memento.
It’s so easy to forget, seems to get easier with each passing year.  With each year come more memories.  You have to let go of some in order to clear away space in your brain for the new.  I hang on to memorabilia in the hopes of hanging on to the memories, with the thought that someday I just may need them.
Another reason I find it so hard to throw away is my dislike for waste.  I keep outdated food, clothes, electronics, thinking someday I just might use them.  I abhor waste, even wasting time, time is far too precious.  And worst of all, a wasted life.  I don’t want to waste any minute of this life God has given me.
We just finished the Christian season of Christmas where we remember that God so loved the world that he came in the form of a baby to save us.  It is Jesus who saves our memories, saves our lives and our world from waste.  With God, no life is wasted, not the unborn, not lives lost in natural disasters.  God knows us all by name and saves us.  God restores our memories as well, all that is important to remember, all that God wants us to remember will be restored if not in this life, then the next.
As I go into 2012, I bring with me a lifetime of memories, precious moments to cherish and then release into God’s embrace.
This is my last column for the Jackson Citizen Patriot.  I have enjoyed the past eight years and am grateful to have had this opportunity.   Thank you to my readers.  You may continue to read my writing through my blog:  www.patriciamrobertson.com.  Thanks for the memories!
Robertson, copyright January 2012

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