"The Reading of the Egg"
 Last week, my friend of more than 35 years, Ellen, and I came together for a very special ritual. It was a ritual we had unofficially planned thirty years earlier. The occasion was the celebration of my birthday, connected through time to her birthday thirty years ago.
As a special gift-of-the heart to her on her birthday, I had composed a rhyming-chronicle of our adventures in the art form that had brought us together; Middle-Eastern Dance. Realizing, even back then, that time flies and memories fade, I wanted to preserve the precious moments we had shared.
I had painstakingly typed the "poem" on cash register tape. Then I rolled it up and put it in a "L'eggs" egg. For those of you who are too young to remember, the L'eggs brand of pantyhose came packaged in a plastic egg. I gave her the egg, wrapped with a big, red ribbon, and a box of tissues.
This year, thirty years later, I told her that I wanted to get together and read the contents of the egg...with a glass of wine, cheese and crackers. So when the "big day" came, Ellen retrieved the egg, we shared the wine, cheese and crackers and "egg."
In the "reading of the egg," there were smiles, tears, laughter and BLANK STARES. Many of the moments I thought were important enough to mention, did not produce the slightest clue to what had actually happened. It caused me to ponder the meaning of memories, how they are made, why some fade, while others won't go away. Why is it that two people remember an event completely differently from each other?
These are some of the results of my ponderings: Memory is a precious gift from God. On the human level it is a part of our survival instinct, to prevent repetition of life-threatening mistakes. On the Soul level it helps us to make sense of our lives, to weigh "good" and "evil;" to glean the lessons of life and help us to make good choices. On the Spiritual level, it connects us to God...to Truth...to the Wisdom of the Ages through our Oneness with Divine Mind...it is when we know, not because we are told, but through our connection with Universal Mind; the Oversoul, God.
Memories are made through the creative process, our thoughts connect with feelings, and a memory is made. Many things fade from our memories because there was a disconnect between the "thinking" and "feeling," the thought, or idea and the emotional energy it generates. Either the thought did not impress us, or there was not enough feeling attached to it. Both the thought and the feeling are required. However, memories are also subjective. The thought that generated the feeling is based on perception, not fact. For this purpose we must always be soft in our opinion when our memory differs from anothers'.
This is true for wonderful memories as well as those horrible, embarrassing moments we cannot seem to erase from our minds. In the embarrassing moments the degree of emotion, BASED ON the thought we held about the event, which is again, oftentimes more presumptive than factual. Changing our thought/reality about the event will usually release the "charge" of the memory that binds us to it, and frees our minds and hearts from the memory. We are healed!
As we come to understand the power our memories can have to assist us in our spiritual growth as well as enhancing our relationships and providing a wonderful "playground of the mind," we can see how important it is to practice the principles of the creative process.
Our memories can be toys. Our memories can be tools. Enjoy them. They are truly precious. Now that you know how...Go make memories!
Blessu! RevAli
PS: In the "playground of the mind" arena, I cannot stress strongly enough the benefit of photographs and journals. Memories are retained through this. :) |
On the Creative Process: 
