{"id":5023,"date":"2015-10-01T08:57:39","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T12:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=5023"},"modified":"2015-10-01T09:01:03","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T13:01:03","slug":"memory-whatever-it-is-that-i-dont-have-i-want-to-keep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=5023","title":{"rendered":"Memory – Whatever it is that I Don’t Have I Want to Keep"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blog<\/a>\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

My husband is a master gardener.<\/p>\n

We have a beautiful backyard with a garden nurtured by a previous owner, Holly, and now made our own by Dave.\u00a0Just beyond the patio are two pots. One is a pot of begonias; they have thrived all summer and keep blooming into Fall. There’s a matching pot of chocolate mint that is more scraggly.\u00a0Dave told me next summer he wanted to do begonias in both pots. I asked him what\u00a0he would do with the mint and he said he’d just throw it away.<\/p>\n

No…I don’t want it thrown away. It has memories for me. What memories, he asked. It was here when we came (Holly was also a master gardener and left all kinds of sweet treasures in this yard of ours).<\/p>\n

Then Dave said, “No, it wasn’t.” “It was a gift from our neighbor where we used to live.” To which I responded:<\/p>\n

“Whatever the memory is that I don’t have I want to keep it.”<\/p>\n

That nonsensical sentence is actually quite revealing. Once upon a time, I had an amazing memory. I could multi-task like crazy, keeping up with all sorts\u00a0 of details. Now, I make lists tucked on my keyboard each day to remember what I might otherwise forget.<\/p>\n

My doctor, who is my same age, tested my memory at my request. He said it was normal and he struggles with the same age-related forgetfulness.<\/p>\n

“Whatever the memory is that I don’t have I want to keep it.”<\/p>\n

So…I write to keep that memory…of family visits, far-away places we’ve traveled and called home, lessons learned, and all the times God showed Himself faithful and kind in our lives together.<\/p>\n

I write for my children…and for me. It would be a huge joy for me if my meanderings add to your day in a positive way.<\/p>\n

I write to keep remembering…such times as these. Grateful. By the way…that pot of chocolate mint? It may hold begonias next year, but my dear husband will plant the mint somewhere so I can enjoy the memory…of that sweet young man next door who shared it with us…now that I remember again. Joy.\"IMG_0113\"<\/a> \"IMG_0117\"<\/a> \"IMG_0007\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Forgetfulness – Seven Types of Normal Memory Problems<\/a><\/p>\n

Age-related Memory Loss<\/a><\/p>\n

When Memory is Normal & When it is Not-So-Normal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My husband is a master gardener. We have a beautiful backyard with a garden nurtured by a previous owner, Holly, and now made our own by Dave.\u00a0Just beyond the patio are two pots. One is a pot of begonias; they have thrived all summer and keep blooming into Fall. There’s a matching pot of chocolate … Continue reading Memory – Whatever it is that I Don’t Have I Want to Keep<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[957,926,50,903,1103,888,761,887,775,55,991],"tags":[1416,2094,2096,2095,275,2100,5,2040,164,2097,2098,2099,4],"class_list":["post-5023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alzheimers-disease","category-attending-or-focus","category-god","category-grace","category-lifelong-learning","category-memories","category-redeeming-restoring","category-remembering","category-seasons-2","category-transitions","category-writing","tag-alzheimers","tag-dementia","tag-forgetfulness","tag-getting-older","tag-grace","tag-lists","tag-memories","tag-memory","tag-multi-tasking","tag-scrabble","tag-sudoku","tag-walking","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-1j1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5023"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5691,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5023\/revisions\/5691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}