Harvesting Our Memories

Yesterday, I wrote about telling our stories, where we’ve seen God’s hand at work in our lives. Remembering and retelling stories can bring hope to others… But not only to others, it also does something for us as well.

The philosopher and poet John O’Donohue talks about the importance of what he calls, “harvesting our memories.” He says, “Always have a reverence for the immensity that is inside you… Every human heart seeks meaning… and meaning is the sister of experience. Everything that happens to you is an act of sowing a seed of experience. It is equally important to be able to harvest that experience… It is the process of reflection that gives depth to it.”

As T.S. Elliot said, many of us have, “had the experience, but missed the meaning.”

Several years ago I was at a writing conference at Calvin College in Grand Rapids Michigan. I remember one of the authors saying to us that whenever she speaks to High School students, she tells them, “You’ve seen enough to write a great novel – even at your young age. But the question is: Have you seen what you’ve seen?” 

Indeed, a lot of the experiences that we have in the world are torn, broken, and hard. But what I’ve come to see is that we begin the process of healing what is hurting, torn, and broken within us, we begin the process of transfiguring our past when we visit those places with compassion and with eyes of faith.

Have you seen what you’ve seen? 

What have you seen in your life? Yes, there are bound to be broken, torn, suffering places. But, can you also see the wonder and the magic? Can you see God’s hand? Do you see the places and times when you were in the miry pit? And the times when you have been lifted out? Do you see not only the pain and the heartache but also the immense kindness and compassion of others?

This is not something that can be done in the moment. It is not something that can be done in the midst of the pain. Sometimes only years later, looking back; perhaps asking a different set of questions…

Today, I want to invite you to reflect on your own stories. Perhaps there are things you need to leave behind. Perhaps there are things you need to ask God to tend to. Perhaps there are things you need to share.

 Let us pray: Loving God, meet us in our times of reflection. We ask for your gentle healing grace; through Christ, we pray. Amen.