Christianity Today Award of Merit
What if our memories are like shells we gather on a beach?
According to pastor and spiritual director Casey Tygrett, ‘We—and all those who have come before us—pick up the experience and we sense it: we feel its edges, notice its color, we smell the distinctive character (for shells it is the sickly seafood salt smell) of the experience, and we try to make sense of what it is. Is it beautiful? How would you describe the color—the tones, the shades, wrapped around the ridges and swirls? Has it been damaged? Does the hard edge scrape our hand, leaving a blemish or a mark?’
How we hold and carry these memories—good and bad—is a part of what forms us spiritually. In this way we have a common bond with the people of Scripture who also had a sensory life, gathering shells and trying to make sense of them. Previously titled As I Recall, Casey Tygrett's writing in The Practice of Remembering explores the power of memory and offers biblical texts and practices to guide us in bringing our memories to God for spiritual transformation.
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Foreword by Marlena Graves
Introduction: A Question Before Remembering
1. How We Got Here
Practice: Narrating a Memory
2. The Art of Noticing Shells
Practice: Journaling
3. Living with Shells
Practice: Staging a Memory
4. The Weight of Shells
Pause
5. Every Memory Belongs
Practice: Writing A Spiritual Autobiography
6. Remembering Who We Are
Practice: Finding Sabbath Rest
7. Coming Back Again
Practice: The Examen for Memories
8. I’ve Felt Like This Before
Practice: Writing Your Own Psalm
9. A Familiar Table
Practice: Opening Your Table
10. Remember, Be Here Now
Pause
11. A Future Memory
Pause
12. A Closing Post-It Note
Acknowledgments
Notes
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Marlena Graves is a writer and adjunct professor. She has also worked at Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). Marlena holds an MDiv from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York, and is a graduate of the Renovaré Institute. She has been a bylined writer for Christianity Today, (in)courage, womenleaders.com, and Our Daily Bread, and she is also the author of A Beautiful Disaster. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Toledo, Ohio.