Eating Moments and Feeding Off Memories

The holidays have slid past us once again.  And it’s easy to forget about the little things that make them special–the family dinners, the effort your friend took to buy you the perfect gift, the warm well-wishes of strangers at the Target check-out.  We bask in the glow of the holidays and then let it slip away.  And then it’s just winter.  And then it’s just cold and gray and the car won’t start and the sidewalk needs to be shoveled and the dog has to be walked…

Definitely easy to forget about sitting around the fireplace with your family and loved ones and laughing about that time your brother peed in one of the display toilets at Ace Hardware when he was five years old (right, Josh?).

I say, don’t forget.  I say cling to those memories like they are the daily bread and water that sustain you.  Not that you should dwell on the past, but you shouldn’t just dismiss it like yesterday’s newspaper.  Keep a clipping.  Log away a memory.  People tend to ruminate on bad experiences far more than good ones (New York Times, March 23, 2012), so it is important to consciously keep a store of positive memories at the front of your brain.  When times are shitty and you swear your fingers are going to snap off one-by-one from the cold, picture a warm thought.  One of mine comes from this past Thanksgiving.

I ventured north to Duluth (like I do almost every Thanksgiving) and stayed with my aunt and uncle.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday anyway, but this year was extra-special.  We made potica.  Maybe some of you with Slovenian ancestry know what I’m talking about.  For those of you who don’t, here’s the deal:  It’s a type of sweet bread that basically takes all day to make.  You prepare the dough, let it sit, roll it out on a table, stretch it (by hand, pulling from the middle) so that it is crepe-paper thin, and then cover it with walnuts, honey, and other sweet goodness, roll it up into a doughy snake, then coil it and bake.  And then enjoy.  It’s absolutely delicious and really, pretty fun to make.

So, that’s one memory that will feed me for a while.  Good luck finding yours.

-Kate