Skip to content

Remembering to Remember

  • by

I often say “I remember and then I forget and then I remember again”. I’m referring to the deep held wisdom about myself, about what I need and who I am. Long known  truths that can become blurred or disappear altogether for a while and then come flooding back with the deepest of memories.

Oh THIS is how it should feel.
Oh THIS is who I am.

So many times I’ve asked myself how do I forget less? How do I reduce the time between forgetting and remembering again? Then in the amazing Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer she writes “Our elders say that ceremonies are the way we “remember to remember”…” Talk about a “hallelujah” moment!

As a non religious woman who has chosen to not be married or have children I have an interesting relationship with the idea of ceremony. I have often noted that really the only ceremony in my life will be my funeral and I wont even be there!! I also don’t really acknowledge birthdays or Christmas so my celebration and ceremony and rituals are lacking compared to the average joe.

Until now the concept of ceremony to me was a way of marking time – to acknowledge and demarcate those key points in your life. But after reading Robin Kimmerer’s words I also see how those markings of time are also a way to bring yourself back to yourself. To create a way to remember and connect to yourself, to others, to this amazing world we live in.

My Cocoon monthly group is a ceremony.
When I make time to be present with the trees on a walk, it is a ceremony.
Getting on my yoga mat and connecting to my breath can be a ceremony.

For 2021 I am committing to more ceremonies.
Rituals to allow me to remember to remember. Pauses in time to remind myself of myself. Little celebrations to acknowledge not only me, but the great fortune I find myself in with those around me and this world I live.

As Robin Kimmerer also says in Braiding Sweetgrass, “Ceremony is a vehicle for belonging – to a family, to a people, and to the land.”

Here’s to a year full of ceremonies and a year of remembering to remember.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *