New art always raises new questions for me, and this Remember image brings up so many:

What do the layers of memory feel like within me?

What memories stay strongest in me? 

How have I strengthened memories I’d like to keep?

What’s it like as I encounter the fragility of remembering or thought?

When I find a light in grief or a difficult remembrance, how did I find it?

How will I love and bless the memories of the dear ones I have lost?

What has my family forgotten that it would be healing to remember?

What truths do I want my communities and culture to honor and remember?

How will the Earth remember me, and us?

How would I like to be remembered, now and after I’ve died?

What would help me remember who I want to be, when I forget?

What do I choose to remember, to keep lit in the center of my life?

I often find poetry rising too, when I explore a new art image.  Here are three that came up for me this time (click the title to see the full poems):

Finally, because I made this collage-painting at a tender time, the memory of someone beloved also tugs at my heart whenever I see this Remember art.  

If you would, please join me in blessing the life and memory of my father-in-law, David, who passed just over a month ago.  My wife and I have felt rearranged, in both grief and love, through his loss.  So this art has become for me a memorial also-- for David, and all those who've gone before.  So many luminous lives have flown recently, and over the years… I hope they remind me to live well now, as fully as I can, in each day I am given.

What do you choose to remember, to keep lit in the center of your life?

May it be so.