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The Art of Making Memories
By Leonard Sweet

To make a memory moment is to "re-member" the soul. The word remember means both "to mark" and "to put together," as in putting together the members, or parts, of a body. In terms of the soul, what do we mark and put together? Memories and stories. If the phrase "remember when" is not on your lips many times a day, if you are not constantly recalling back to life meaningful memories and stories, your soul is being starved to death.

Memory is the humus of the soul. Memories fall to the ground and fertilize the soil so that the soul can grow. When there is no sun and no rain, the soul can still grow from the soil being enriched by all that humus. When I'm lonely, a piece of music coupled with a memory moment can turn me into a person who no longer possesses the key to his heart. When I'm depressed and dangerously low on currencies of hope and faith, I make withdrawals from my memory bank that keep me going until my faith-and-hope crisis has ended.

The art of moment making is the making of deposits in the first place so that you can make withdrawals later, even when you're wearing a salt-smeared face. Or in eight words I have memorized from the "war poet" (who didn't write about war) Edward Thomas, in his last poem written from the trenches: "Despair is but hope blinded by its tears."

A team of researchers at St. Olaf College in Northfied, Minnesota, say that the sharing of such stories may actually bring health benefits. They soothe the soul and provide markers for the mind in its passage through time. Postmoderns care little for high fashion. They care deeply for high integrity. And what gives anything integrity is not a state of perfection but a story that proves its authenticity.

Excerpted from Soul Salsa