Thanking God for Odd Things - Memories

I can't believe I haven't posted since last Saturday. I had to, tonight, though, to share with you an odd thing I thanked God for yesterday - my memories.

I've thanked him for many things, some large but many, many small things. The small things were often things that others would consider unimportant, trivial, or insignificant. But to me, they meant something at the time.

Yesterday, I happened to glance across the room and saw the photo I keep of my sis, my brother and myself when we were very young. My sis is pulling me in a little red wagon (the photo is black and white, but I remember that wagon). She was younger and my DM even scolded me for letting her do the pulling, but my little sister begged to let her pull me. We were both pretty skinny back then, and the wagon rolled easily, so I'm sure no harm was done. That was one photo in the little bi-fold cardboard frame.

The other photo is my baby brother (who will be 69 in another week!) and he looks to be about 12-18 months, or even less, at that time. That would make me and my sis, in the other photo, about 5 and 4. My brother had to be leaned up against the back of the little chair he was in so that he wouldn't slip down because he was too plump to hold himself up. He is now tall and thin.

I know some folks have a hard time remembering their childhood but I have very strong memories of those days and of my beloved sister and brother. I can't call them "siblings" because it seems to be impersonal - they are my "sister" and my "brother" and that is that.

Then I began more trips down memory lane, each path leading to another, and after a while, I felt a strong need to thank the Lord for those memories.

Some of them were sad, of course, and some were harsh, but many were happy or touching or silly.

It doesn't matter. I am ever so grateful that I can still remember them. Is that an odd thing to thank the Lord for? I don't know what others think, but to me, it's not odd at all.

Dear Father, thank you with all my heart for the wonderful gift of my memory. Thank you for the warmth of the good memories, and for the lessons that I've learned from the not-so-good ones. Thank you for every one that I can recall.