Memory Weekend

My memory weekend with my daughters is almost here.
We leave tomorrow to meet in Lebanon Ohio. I am really looking forward to this.

Six months ago when I was driving to Cincinnati for a wedding we passed Lebanon Ohio where we lived 1979 - 1981 and on a whim I asked Chuck to go home through Lebanon. Would you believe that I could not remember where we lived and could not find the house? We drove past the Golden Lamb restaurant and the church we attended but could not find the house!

At the same time I had just taken a workshop on NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming which talked about memories that are in our bodies and in places. And that we can go back and revisit and remember.

From both of these ideas I came upon the idea of revisiting my past with my daughters so that we could remember together. What I have learned through being with my siblings is that we remember different things about our past and we can help each other reconnect to the events of the past. So, tomorrow the girls and I take a weekend and visit the homes, schools and places of our past from 1979 - 2002. They have, of course, been formative years for the girls and years of joy, struggle, and growth for me as well.

We will have cameras and journals and questions for reflection and lots of time together - going from Lebanon to Columbus to Zanesville to Bowling Green. It is surely going to be an adventure.

On my sabbatical I am going to do more of this - with my own story - going back to where I grew up with my brothers and to where I went to college. God speaks to us through our stories - and remembering is so important.