A Mystery

As I get older, my memory sometimes seems to fade. Does it frighten me? Sometimes.  The thought of forgetting, having dementia or Alzheimer's is a scary thought. Yesterday something happened that I have not been able to figure out. Looking in a large folder, I found a photograph of my son that my brother had taken. It is an artistic photo playing with light and dark.  I remember everything about the picture and why my brother wanted to take the photo in the first place. My son had attempted to put on a tie and had it all tangled around his neck. I wonder if my brother or my son even remember the photo.

The puzzle comes with two other pictures in the folder. There are two beautiful pictures of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Sacred Heart of Mary.  I have never seen, or I don't remember seeing, the two pictures. If they had been prayer card size, I probably would not have thought anything about where I got them. These pictures are 12x9 inches. I know I would never have purchased the pictures. Did they belong to my parents? Now I know they might have bought two religious pictures. Did I inherit them when they passed away? I do not remember my parents having them in their home. I have no recollection of ever having seen the two pictures. Wouldn't I remember if someone had given them to me? Did God put them in the folder for some special reason? It certainly is a mystery!



I have never been a devotee of the Immaculate Heart of Mary/Sacred Heart of Mary/Heart of Mary though I have seen pictures of the Blessed Mother with a heart of flames, a dagger inserted into the heart and the heart encircled with flowers. Jesus has thorns encircling his heart along with the flames. His heart shows his Divine love for mankind.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is known to me because my Father belong to the Holy Name Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; I try to attend mass for the Sacred Heart of Jesus every first Friday of the month; I have a small statue of the Sacred Heart and a large picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus hangs on a wall in my house. (This large picture I did inherit from my Father. He got it from St. Peter's Church in Greeley, Colorado when they were refurbishing the church in the 1940's .)


Finding the pictures in the folder while clearing out a box makes me wonder what other treasures, that I don't remember, can be hidden in the many storage boxes in my basement?

"The advantage of a bad

memory is that one enjoys

several times the same good

things for the first time."

Friedrich Nietzsche