We ponder our memories so we might live more presently to our lives and environments and relationships, integrating as much as we can so we might be fully awake and, so, fully alive.  The mindful person not only wants to experience something but to discern the meaning of it.

In his novel Invisible Cities, Italo Carvalo has his character Marco Polo describing a bridge to Kublae Khan stone by stone.  The Khan responds, “Why do you speak to me of the stones?  It is only the arch that matters to me.”  Polo simply replies, “Without stones there is no arch.”

Like the stones which form the arch, our lives are formed by our memories, including those from our future.*

The question which forms out of the importance of being mindful to the memories which form our lives, is this: If I am not grateful for who I am, can I have a proper understanding of myself, and will I then go on to do the things I must do?

(*The narrative arc of a story, like the arch of a bridge, is made up of words, sentences, sequences, scenes, and acts.  Robert McKee in his significant Story points out that what a good story does is help us to reflect upon our lives, not just to experience it.)
(The words on today’s cartoon are the lyrics from a song I loved on first hearing, by Fiona Reid – Yellow in a Rainbow (you can check out more of Fiona great sound and songs here).