CABL Forum - the things that trigger a memory

I am sitting in the all too familiar reality of loneliness brought about by circumstance once again. Albeit joyful in theory and practice, still it is lonely.
As I watch "Fred Claus" and garner the lessons derived from the story and moral implications, I start to enjoy a flavor from Alaska. A flavor disseminated by a much favored family member, in what just seems to be moments in time before the departure to prosperity or just getting by again. A flavor that as I imbibe.........I start to remember.

Thoughts of family when times were not to be worrisome. A time when all we had to do was be carefree and enjoy what life delivered. Feelings that have my mind dancing with the joy of youth and younger siblings. Boundless adventures of life unbridled. Riding bikes and playing baseball. Camping and playing in the dirt. Football in the snow and hockey on the melting ice of the spring. The life of endless joys of play, fishing and Christmas. It isn't Christmas so much as the feeling of it. The same joy and brotherhood that Christmas lends mankind. The very marrow of what we relish in life. Companionship. Love. Sharing.

Something so simple to spark the centers of the brain to nostalgia. To the thoughts that carry the spirit across the seas of memories to the ones we love to remember and sometimes forget. As I enjoy this simple food..........I am urged to think of family. I am urged to ponder siblings and children. Friends and lovers. Wife and parents. And I willingly do so. I invite the feeling of it. I roll over in its smell like a dog on a rotting piece of fish. I mimic the smile he makes in getting into the mire. I go back to the time of when my brothers were young. I go back to yesterday and beyond. I am happily sad that those times are gone and only the dust of the past remains. Thoughts join me in the new venue I have found my self in. Thoughts that perhaps............just perhaps we should try harder, so much more diligently to remain as we are during the season of Jesus and Santa Claus.

As I think of this I am already thinking of the next Christmas..........so far from now. Yet why is it? It doesn't have to be far. So I am going to propose something this year to my family and friends. I am going to say............"One of the presents we give this year should be to challenge our friends and relatives." "To what?" you ask? Challenge all of us to find someone. Someone in need. In need of something they aren't getting. Then get it for them. But, you cannot let them know where it came from ever. And we need to do it so covertly that they won't guess. It might not be someone you know. And you aren't to discuss it with anyone. It has to be your action and idea. But you will have to start now. Then while we are all enjoying our Christmas and the gifts we may or may not have.......perhaps the best gift will be the one we know someone got without knowing who gave it. And something they needed. It didn't have to be a material thing. It could be a service. The gift that brings a smile of humble satisfaction on our face as we watch our families tear into their gifts. So this year maybe Christmas will come early for someone. All because of you.

And......................all because of some smoked salmon someone (Richard) gave me and I started to enjoy one night in Texas. Now you know the rest of the story.

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the things that trigger a memory