Parker stood at the window, stretching to see the glint of sun reflecting in the lake at the bottom of the hill. The 365 days just past had comprised her 43rd year. A new year - 365 glorious days -- beckoned.
Hidden fears whispered, "Who knows what could happen. Walk softly! Watch out!"
Parker listened, closing her eyes to focus in meditation and prayer. She re-membered the 43 years just past, the joys, the sorrows, the stresses, the beauty; decisively, she opened her eyes, turned from the window, opened the door and stepped out in the world with confidence and optimism.
Credit for the commentary on "re-membering" goes to Ruthlace and this blogpost.
The particularly relevant part of Ruth's post on re-membering:
One Sociologist, working with the elderly suggests we hyphenate the word remember to "re-member" to distinguish it from ordinary recollection or reminiscing. Re-membering is more than "Backward, turn back O man in your flight. Make me a child again just for tonight." Re-membering is the reconstructing of one’s members, the figures who properly belong to one’s prior selves. Through re-membering, a life is given shape and form and extends back into the past and forward into the future as an edited story. Without re-membering, we lose our history and ourselves.
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This vignette was written in honor of Lyn - see preceding post.
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