If you think of life as a journey, then you realize that you have probably collected lots of mementos along the way. These little souvenirs of life might be attached to wonderful memories. Or they could be mementos that you wish you never got in the first place and could forget altogether.

There are lots of stops, detours, and minor destinations along the way. Some of which are planned, some of which are not, but they all add up to the grand masterpiece, the glorious blessing, the magnificent adventure that is life.

The other day, I was thinking about some of the mementos of life that I’ve acquired thus far and how they have stayed with me.

• The stretch marks on my belly are wonderful mementos earned from growing two precious babies in my body.
• The wishbone-shaped scar on my right pinky finger was a hard learned lesson about trying to catch a glass pitcher that fell off the freezer when I was a kid.
  • My daughter has a scar on the back of her head: a memento of a pillow fight with her cousins when she was younger and whacking her head on the headboard when she fell. Rather than stitches, the doctor had to put staples to close up the gash.
• As I am typing this, I am wearing an old “Oakland” Raiders sweatshirt from an ex-boyfriend. The material has gotten really thin, there’s some fraying on the left cuff, and the whole thing is pretty faded. While that relationship didn’t last, my love for the Raiders did, and the sweatshirt memento is still hanging in there.
• I have an impressive pressed penny collection, believe it or not. Those are physical mementos of some of the places I’ve been.
• There’s a jagged and painful hole in my heart from when my brother died almost 10 years ago. That’s a memento I wish I never got. In the Japanese culture, they find a way to beautifully mend the cracks in their pottery and honor the flaws (called kintsugi). I haven’t figured out how to do that with my poor heart.
• Many years ago when I was a teenager, I sat with my grandma and recorded our conversation. It was mostly about strawberry ice cream and how my grandma used to call it “pink ice cream” when she was a kid. She was 80-something years old when we recorded it. She passed away a couple of years afterward, so I am glad I still have that tape so I can hear her voice. (I should probably get it transferred into a newer form of technology, though.)
• The wrinkles appearing around my eyes mean that I’ve smiled and laughed lots.
• The screen saver on my computer is a slide show of my travel photos throughout the years. Great mementos of some great adventures!

I hope to live until I am 100 years old. What a journey that will be! There’s still plenty of life’s mementos to continue collecting along the way. Praying that there will be more good ones than bad. Feel free to tell me about some of your own souvenirs of life in the comments below.

As always, thanks for stopping by. ❤