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blogging101, Creative Writing, Faith and Writing, Family, Journaling, Lent 2016, Memories & Reflections, Quotes, Writing 101, Writing Prompts
Lent Photo-A-Day (February 10 – March 27, 2016)
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Day 44 — Remember
This word IMMEDIATELY brought a picture to mind!
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Had I not been too lazy to go downstairs and rifle through the pix on the PC, I could have found an actual picture of our group of homies that looked just like this! Every summer for years our seven families would gather (with all the kiddos) at our family cabin in the Uintahs. After we’d put the kids to bed the adults would all sit around a huge fire and relax. Our typical blood-brother routine (we eschewed the rite of cutting our thumbs and placing them together with the next person! 😀 ) was to share big bottles of wine we’d pass around. You’d take a swig, hand it to the next person, and on and on (actually we figured the alcohol would kill any germs. 😉 ). We went through a lot of wine over the years. As silly as it might sound, there was just something about sharing those bottles of wine that bonded the fourteen of us.
Buckeye Haven, our cabin in the Uintahs.
Inevitably, as we sat there and talked, we’d end up sharing stories about things we’d done together or as families. Stories. Remembering. There was almost something sacred about the whole thing. Being together at the end of the day in that beautiful setting, closing the outside world off, it was as close to heaven as I think I could ever get here.
When I think of those times I’m often reminded of how Jesus’ disciples would have gathered together out and about in the countryside as they traveled, Jesus preaching his message of love. No matter what your religious preference or lack of it, when it comes to the person of Jesus there is plenty of written evidence that the man lived. Josepheus, a Roman historian even references him. So I have no doubt this little band of twelve followers was real and that they grew very close during their three years together.
Then came the Passover meal where Jesus passed around a common cup of wine for them to dip their bread in, all the while explaining that one of them would betray him. I would have thought it would have driven them apart, but it didn’t. Their bond with each other was strong. (Except for the one who left to do the deed.) And after Jesus was arrested and crucified where do we find them? Gathered together again in that upper room, no doubt sharing wine and expressing their horror and grief, but also sharing stories and remembering their life with this man.
So why do we as friends remember and share stories around our camp fire? Why did the disciples? I’m guessing we remember so we can live them again and so they’ll never be forgotten… I figure it’s in our DNA to hold on to what is precious to us.
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We’re told that when we remember,
the same parts of our brain light up
as when we experienced the event
we’re remembering.
Your brain lives through it again.
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Phil Klay
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Picture Credit:
fire — www.infostormer.com
cabin — moi
Impromptu Promptlings 
That could be my group too. We get together still every year for a 5 day campout, somewhere different each year. We do stories, and sing and pass bottles around. We have had the same thought too, about alcohol killing the germs. Nothing like friends.
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No. They are the web of life that hold our worlds together sometimes when we can’t.
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Lovely. Freedom.
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What a cute looking little cottage ! Our last few family get togethers have been at my parents’ funerals. We’re scattered too far apart to catch up often. sad as the occasions were, they were so incredibly healing, special. And we had so much FUN – reduced to tears of laughter at the loving reminiscings.
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Well those kind of gatherings at funerals can be so cathartic. They can be a blessing. It’s just a shame it ends up the only time some of us get together, isn’t it… Our cabin isn’t all that little. It’s bigger than it looks in the picture. We have beds for ten, couches for three, and can fit an amazing number of kids on the floor! Our good friends ownt he cabin across from us and they are part of that group. So we can easily sleep 30 between the two cabins.
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Awesome. Sounds a bit like our boat. We can sleep up to 15 on board, and more on deck if need be. Not that we ever have. Unfortunately my family is scattered from one end of this huge continent to another and places in between.
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Good Lord! I can’t imagine sleeping on the deck on a boat! 😮 I’m scared to death of water.
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What a cozy picture! I can imagine how the prompt led to the nostalgia of what that picture represents. It immediately brought Womencircles to mind for me. That’s where the larger gatherings came into my life. Of course, the passing around in my days of old (way before Womencircles) was of a different sort. *sheepish grin*
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Not at Womencircles I hope!!! LOL 😀
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LMAO!!! No, not to my knowledge. But I’d reached a point in my life where I found how my inner path brought as much pleasure as other ‘induced’ experiences. You can’t beat inner work, and the places where we do that for exquisite ecstasy.
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Well, we all gotta grow up sometime!!! I know Womencircles was a big and important part of your life.
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Hmmm… growing up. No, not me!
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Obviously neither one of us since we both have stuffed critters we play with! LOL 😀
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I have similar memories of six families camping together. I would have to note the breakfast event. It was the big meal of the day, cooked on grills by the men.. Of the twelve parents of these families, eight are still living now in our eighties. Unfortunately we see each other now mostly because of being drawn together by funerals. Does that sound depressing? Sorry. It is not so much because we have strong beliefs that we will all be together again. I’m rather intrigued by what heaven will offer in place of our camping trips.
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I can SO identify with the breakfast thing. Best meal of the day. We never ate in the cabin. Always had long tables set up outside. We are getting to that age where funerals are starting to enter our life more often than we’d like. As depressing as it is, it’s just a fact of life, isn’t it. Well, we do what we can and keep on truckin’. I hope you’re in good health, Oneta. {{{Oneta}}}
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