Memories Of The Past

After my recent yard sale, I decided it was time to reevaluate some of the items that I have been keeping over the years. People keep different things for different reasons. I've mentioned in the past that I used to keep every card that was given to me for whatever occasion. Instead of keeping the cards now, I'll scan them so I 'll have a record forever or until my next hard drive crashes. It took me several weeks to accomplish this task but I can happily say that my house is card-free. When digging through a long forgotten box of stuff from my childhood I happened upon a stack of cards that I had received for my high school graduation. It's been 25 years, do I really need to keep them? I flipped through the cards and read what my friends and family had said to me in the past: You will achieve great things! Good luck in the future! Be sure and keep in touch when you become the most famous author ever! Be sure and write once you move to Georgia! Remember, God loves you and so do we! And never forget where you came from... Those messages hold true to this day. What particularly struck me about the cards were the names of those that are no longer with us: Granny and Tommy Mammaw and Papaw Uncle Harry Aunt Susan Aunt Alice Aunt Evelyn Jane Downing Rhonda Edmisten Sonny and Rachael Mrs. Stevens ...and Dad I continued to reminisce about those no longer with us and the roles they played in a young 18-year-old's life as I stacked the cards neatly into a new cedar-lined box with a few other things I had decided to keep. Sometimes, I thought to myself, it's okay to hold on to things from the past...