I woke up this morning to both of my grandparents already sitting at the breakfast table drinking their daily orange juice and bowl of cereal. My grandmother began talking about this cake that she remembers having as well as a corn casserole which she claimed both could be found on the bottom shelf in the kitchen near the stove. 

I must say anytime I'm asked to look for something at my grandparent's house, I either know I am going to fail miserably or I am going to find it after searching for a long time. Luckily, though, this time was different. I did find the old Notre Dame cookbook which looked like an antique from the past. It had a bright yellow cover, worn and a Notre Dame emblem on the front. Inside the cover it says "The Notre Dame Women's Alumni Cookbook."  It certainly was a homemade cookbook and was no bigger than a small pocketbook.

I think there is such whimsy in listening to someone discuss recipes and stories of the past. And the mind is an unbelievable vault of music and memories from the past. Truly, it is amazing how much the brain holds even at 91 years of age. My grandmother started off rattling old recipes and the exact name of every individual who had made that recipe. It was almost like a like a game just seeing if I could find the recipe she was referring to. Low and behold every single time I turned the page of that yellow cookbook- there was the recipe and by the exact author she had mentioned.  

This morning my grandmother picked out two of the old recipes from this cherished book, and I made them for her to try to bring to life the old memories she remembers experiencing so very long ago. And with every biteful we looked at eachother smiling a bit and knowing the importance of the food and the memories behind each ingredient. 

I have always wondered just how exactly the human mind works. So often I have heard that as you grow older you forget day-to-day activities. And this is certainly true. But there is also something that happens to the mind where the dominant memories become the memories of childhood or the memories of long ago. And you have to wonder why it is that some memories become so very vivid in the older person's mind. Why that memory? Why that moment? And you come to realize that certainly the brain cannot hold every special moment from the past, but the memories that are saved and remembered must be THE most important memories to that person. And if you listen carefully, you become a witness to those beautiful memories. 

How whimsical that at the end of our lives we are usually left with the memories that really shaped us in some way. It's almost like a natural reflective process on one's life where you become so aware of all the tiny and large encounters shaped and threaded through your heart but you naturally shed those memories (good and bad) that perhaps took up time but did not change the soul of the heart. Or perhaps we must realize that every memory shapes us in some way but it is only those memories vividly remembered at the end of our lives that have created the most threads within our heart or maybe it is just that those are the threads we are meant to pass onto the next generation. 

There is great whimsy in making memories. There is even greater whimsy in listening to the chosen memories of another's past. And great lessons to be passed on through the hearts of multiple generations. New stories told.