It is our precious memories who weigh very little and go anywhere we go. Mining for this gold requires us to recognize when we strike it rich and being able to capture them so we can access this treasure anytime.

Memories allow us the realization that we have changed. We aren’t who we are even from yesterday. We cope with habitual patterns and our notion of who we are and think we don’t change at all,  but we do, and this self-discovery is exciting. I need to read my stories from the past to help me recognize the worth of these changes going on inside of me. This discovery. This awareness. These memories are worth everything, and they are worth its weight in gold even though they are weightless.

Today is my son-in-law’s birthday, Easter is on Sunday and early Monday morning Grant and I will take off to drive 1800 miles to the farm in Oklahoma.  Memories of Good Friday and Easter tease me during today. I can remember the joy of wearing Easter bonnets and white gloves, singing in the children’s choir, a particular hymn I love to sing even to this day. Strong memories that need sorting out and putting into a story, so they are relevant to the person who reads my story in a book and is part of the art of storytelling. These stories have to be as simple as Xavier picking up my ceramic two bunnies with an Easter Basket filled with eggs between them. Xavier got joy in touching the rabbits and the explanation of what it is. Our stories have to be mined in this simple childlike way so everyone can enjoy the story.

So it’s Chris’s Birthday. Chris is my son-in-law. Katie (my daughter) called yesterday to tell me we are going to color Easter eggs today at 5:00. We’re not doing it tomorrow because I have a woman’s meeting in the afternoon. I said I’ll buy the eggs and boil them after Katie asked me if I could get the Egg Dye. We talked about Easter Baskets and  Candy. I remembered Easter Egg Hunts as a child in Chicago, and they were spectacular. But this is a different generation, and it is only going to be Xavier looking for eggs, AND he doesn’t need to gather sugar. My contribution will be getting him some books to read because he loves books.

I told Katie I’d have them over for a birthday dinner once I got back from Oklahoma. And while I was talking with her, I also realized I had found a gold nugget story for today for Chris. It’s small and maybe insignificant but quite worthy of telling this bit of memory to you. And that is Deviled Eggs. Chris loves deviled eggs. I usually make them for his birthday, Easter and other special occasions because he enjoys them so much. I had forgotten this. Talking to Katie, focused on egg making, brought this memory back to me. I told Katie I’d make deviled eggs for Chris and bring them over at egg painting time.

It is at the strangest of times when mining for memories and story collecting happen. We need to be cognizant of this “hunt” going on within us and capture them because they help us remember what has been extraordinary. Deviled eggs and this story of deviled eggs brings Spring, Easter, Resurrection, and Rebirth into a non-verbal energy form whose weight is worth more than gold.

What memories will you mine this weekend that will be a story you’ll want to hold on to forever?

“Deviled eggs anyone?”