"We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget."
-Joan Didion, writer
My youngest daughter Kaia is graduating from high school in May. When my oldest daughter Bryn graduated four years ago, I made a "This is Your Life" scrapbook for her, reviewing significant people and events from birth through high school.
Whew! Seriously, I am still trying to recover!
But, artistic burn-out aside, I want to create the same memories for Kaia, so the work of sorting through photos and ephemera has begun.
In the process of collecting the "just right" memories, the memories that signify entire phases of her young life, I've been appalled by how much I would have forgotten without the various mementos I've saved. At the same time, I've been dismayed by how much stuff I've squirreled away!
There is an entire shoe box of baby shoes-knitted booties, beaded moccasins, worn-out jellies, and bright red Norwegian clogs, featuring flower designs hand-painted by real Norwegians!
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Kaia's print of her crawdad, Garfield. |
And there is an entire box of pet-related souvenirs---tiny collars outgrown by puppies, adoption certificates belonging to cats, and, of course, dozens of ClayPaws® prints bearing the impressions of cats, dogs, guinea pigs, and even a beloved crayfish.
All these pet keepsakes have me wondering---which ones will my daughter decide to keep forever? I mean really forever, taking them with her out into the world and into her adult life.
Honestly, I don't have any keepsakes that belonged to my childhood pets. I have a couple of photos and that's it. And, as an adult, I've had so many pets that their mementos and cremains have now taken over all of the drawers and shelves of an étagère in our hallway.
It's probably time to pare down. But, which keepsakes are my "sacred objects," the truly precious and meaningful ones? I'm going with a photo of each pet, one ClayPaws® print of each, and the heart-shaped night light made of red glass that I bought in memory of my first cat Chelsea almost three decades ago.
What are your "sacred objects?" Stop by our Facebook page and tell us what you've saved