Thankful Thursday.

I thought of something really good last night that I was thankful for, and then 40 winks washed it away. So today I'm thankful for memory.

I'm thankful that when it comes to remembering, the mind prefers quality over quantity, like the ol' adage: it's not the days of your life but the life in your days. This equalizes the length of everyone's life, no matter if our time here is short or long, which is how a 19-month-old child can have as much impact or more than a 72-year-old man.

Memory celebrates carpe diem, like bravely facing a new challenge, and one-to-one experiences, like learning to embroider with your mother and snippets of the everyday, like the smell of dryer sheets. We remember verbal exchanges that have stunned our senses, and we cherish the idiosyncratic patterns of those we love. This whole wad of life's souvenirs is housed in the cells of our brains, and I like to think, in the vibrations of our souls. What a miracle that something abstract and fleeting can be contained and recalled in a physical organ. Absolutely amazing. I like to think that your memory is the church of yourself, where you go pay homage to yesterday and offer up the happenings of today.

All of these butterfly moments are haphazardly collected in our little brain cubbies. And thank God for that. Thank God for all the memories and the ability to keep them. Even the ones that you wish you could forget. Even the one that cause today's tears--the tears mean that you care and caring is why we're here.

What are you thankful for today?