Opening to the Spirit
Today’s word: Keepsake
1
) I’ve moved house three times in the last eight years. Each time, keepsakes were considered. Should this thing held in my hand travel with me another time or was the moment right to let it go?
A box of thank you cards and letters from former clients and students were burned in the woodstove. I glanced only at a few, letting the faces of people I had known so well come to mind, before tossing them in the fire.
I decided that I did not need to keep every birthday card, and my children’s artwork was pared down to a precious few.
The box I now carry from place to place is small. When the time comes for someone else to hold each thing in their hands and decide what to keep, their task may be difficult but it won’t be onerous. They will find a few Mother’s Day cards, some pictures of my parents when they were young, a letter from a good friend, a wedding ring, some poetry, a small painting, a few stones, a shell, a cross.
These keepsakes remind us who we are and how we are connected. Some of our connections are just for a time and some will endure everything. Some connect us to people and some to places. Handled properly, these objects become holy. They are symbols pointing to the holiness of our relationships – with God, with the earth, and with each other.
2
) I must confess I sometimes wonder if I am on the verge of becoming a hoarder. I have a great deal of stuff in boxes in our house that I do plan on dealing with at some point. That point just never seems to arrive. Most of the items are files and notes from church work going back years, and of course books. The papers will, I promise you, end up in a recycling bin at some point.
There are, however, keepsakes, little items that each tell a story. I have tiny bells, a plate from my mother's elementary school, a tiny treasure box, a leather cross a camper made for me once, and a small bit of wrapped ashes from a smudging ceremony. You get the idea.
I bet most of you our readers also have a drawer somewhere filled with keepsakes like this. I also have a larger folder I labelled years ago my warm fuzzy file. This includes photos, thank you cards, a letter from a college student, and some tiny arts and crafts items. These are truly precious.
As usual my mind has wandered all over the page. I do want to comment on the word keepsake. Each of us is a product of our life experiences. We have been challenged and have changed because of the people and events that have shaped our lives. My keepsakes are reminders of that reality. They do not trap me back in the past but help me cherish the memories and give me courage to go faithfully into the future. Those keepsakes I will always hold on to.
3
) Decluttering becomes a serious issue as life progresses. If you've moved several times you know this. Whole books and websites exist with step-by-step guidance: weed out and organize your possessions in six quick easy tips. Call it practical household management or fire prevention. It's also a spiritual discipline: clear your space and free your spirit. Doesn't a sparsely furnished room, decorated in functional minimalist style, exude a certain elegance and grace. It's either a gallery or someone else's home!
What to do with the keepsakes? There's great satisfaction in sorting old clothes, choosing which vegetable peeler to keep or put in the jumble sale. No one needs five overcoats, but ten pair of gloves - some of those were gifts! Memorabilia accumulated over decades, concrete evidence of connections with people and events ~ there will be a time to cull them, but not yet.
I come from a long line of collectors. In my family a keepsake could be an heirloom brooch, bone china cup, a carved wooden pipe touched by great-great grandparents, handed down through other greats and grands, eventually to us children of the children. Other things I keep: a stone from the path where a friend and I walked and shared a heart to heart talk, my children's and grandchildren's drawings through various developmental stages. Old photos, songbooks, shelves of poetry, files full of worship readings, invitations to weddings, concert programs, clergy installations. Quotes scribbled in notebooks and on scraps of paper - the random distilled wisdom of so many. I cannot call it clutter! After my mother died, her spirit sat with me as I sorted her stash.
What do I really need? Items of personal value that serve no other purpose than as reminders of people and events vital to my story. These I keep for the sake of holding on.
4
) I wonder if you are like me in your preservation of plane tickets, concert programmes, and conference nametags. It seems that my automatic response is to store these things away as keepsakes, reminders of events that were important to me. Would that a concert programme could capture and preserve the captivating music we heard, or a plane ticket magically transport us back to a memorable vacation.
But the very best keepsakes are the ones we manage to preserve in our minds and our hearts. We take them out from time to time, as if giving them a good polish. We share them with friends and loved ones. We savour them. They are not subject to decay, flood, fire or any other natural disaster. They are preserved as long as we honour them. I eventually tire of the old ticket stubs and rolled up programmes. They find their way to the waste basket during spring cleaning.
Not so the keepsakes of the heart. Forever young, forever new, they stay with us a lifetime.
One word, four voices - now it's your turn to reflect: What keepsakes do you find worth keeping?
Rev. Mead Baldwin pastors the Waterville & North Hatley pastoral charge; Rev. Lynn Dillabough is now Rector of St. Paul's in Brockville ON. She continues to write for this column as a dedicated colleague with the Eastern Townships clergy writing team; Rev. Lee Ann Hogle ministers to the Ayer’s Cliff, Magog & Georgeville United Churches; Rev. Carole Martignacco is Consulting Minister to UU Estrie-unitarian Universalists in North Hatley.