Thanksgiving – a time to identify what we’re grateful for. Another opportunity to remember past events and relationships as well as current relationships that have meant something dear to us.

One year, as a family, we did a memory line.  The idea is that you take a long piece of thin rope, or you could use ribbon or twine, etc.  As you tell your life’s story you tie a knot at significant events.  Each year you add on to your memory line as a way of recording for yourself and those for whom your telling your story.

Thurman focuses on the warmth of humankind that he had known: his mother’s arms, his father’s strength, friends to play with, etc. As he remembered the laughter, or twinkle in someone’s eye it was a reminder to him that life is good.

He calls them a sacrament of Thanksgiving – a visible sign of an inward grace.  Often I neglect or forget that the people in my life, the acts of kindness or bravery shown by others, are visible signs of inward grace.

I think we can do this act of remembering any time of the year.  It would be a different kind of journaling.  We could bring friends together for a meal every quarter even and recant our lifeline of visible signs of an inward grace.