Gratitude and Reflections

What are memories? How are they captured? How are they preserved? Are memories maintained in photos and physical items, or are they the thoughts we carry in our hearts? The answer is simple: it’s all of the above.

For those who have visited my home know my office is encompassed with a plethora of books, manuals, sermons, musical discs, and bins cascading with photos of family, friends, temple, nature, and life’s sacred moments.

When perusing my closet, I often find myself reflecting on photos…snapshots in time that seemed only yesterday. While the polaroids vary in landscape and period, each elicits an emotion from tears, a sense of joy, or a sturdy laugh.

Memories are the very gift our hearts and mind can hold fast in times of bliss and sorrow.

While physical items may carry life’s mementos, I encourage you to value the time you have or had with those around you. Time is precious, and time is irreplaceable.

As one who enjoys a collection of objects, I learned a valuable lesson about memories stored within the heart. While we all may hold valuable pieces in our homes, we must remind ourselves that it is the very people who surround those objects that are of sacred importance.

As I compose this piece, I recognize the heartfelt melodies items carry. My wife and I traveled the world and purchased artifacts to remember those travels; however, if I had the opportunity to return those items in exchange for my family and me having one more blessed day with Myra, I would.

Alas, we cannot be tethered to the past but only our steps forward.

Friends, as we enter the holiday season and, most recently, Thanksgiving, I ask you to gravitate with gratitude for the time you have with the people in your lives, including the acquaintance, the stranger, and with compassion, having the courage to rekindle a lost friendship or a lost connection before time is a distant memory.

As I always suggest in my writings: move with grace and love in your actions and words, and may the holiday season be a moment to embrace those around you near and far. The Hebrew term for gratitude is hakarat hatov, which translates as “recognizing the good,” and thus, I challenge you with this:

keep your heart open to all, and cherish both time and people with gratitude.

-Rabbi Merle E. Singer

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