Today, focus on some of your favourite memories and appreciate how fortunate you were to have those experiences. If you want, try to make a new, happy memory today.

I went into my archives to find an old photo for today’s #Gratitude30 prompt, “Memories”. Here I am celebrating Divali back in 2009.

We are asked to focus on some of our favourite memories, to appreciate how fortunate we were to have had those experiences and to try to make a new, happy memory today.

Earlier today I found myself seated around a table with a group of friends, packing sweets to be shared to family and friends as part of this year’s Divali celebrations. I have memories of packing sweets at my grandparent’s house when very young, surrounded by the scent of puja and the voices of my aunts and uncles. I have memories of packing sweets in the years between then and now with cousins on both sides of my family. These memories carry with them a sense of community as well as bits and pieces of remembered conversations and quarrels, and feelings of love interwoven throughout. I feel immense gratitude for the opportunity to have these memories of family, especially in times such as these.

It is my hope that as we reflect on our memories we can find the joy in them or the lessons that we can grow from. If your memories are filled with sorrow or distress I hope that, with each breath, you find the opportunity to be present and create moments that will become memories of joy.

~Renee Arundhati

*these posts are also being shared on my social media (Instagram and Facebook) as I have shared there over the past years.