How do you fill up your memory bucket?
I didn’t realize how important memories were until I got sick. My memories of my life lived up until that point were a well of strength I dipped into whenever I needed. My memory bucket reminded me of what I had been so lucky to have experienced, and gave me the will to fight so that maybe I could again.
I think part of why I began to write my memoirs - to strengthen and consolidate the contents of my bucket. I had a suspicion I would need those memories to get me through some dark times. I was right.
It wasn’t like I stopped making memories when I got sick. On the contrary, I fought to experience as much as I could for as long as I could and my memories of that time are felt deeply. I traveled until the doctors told me I couldn’t, I wrote, I cherished time with my family, and during every second of that I realized how precious it was.
Franck and me in our 13th century wine cellar under the streets of Beaune. This was taken on a summer trip back to Burgundy just after I’d been diagnosed with PSC in 2012.
It is no coincidence that one of the main ways I remained sane (mostly - an 80% rule applies here) during my battle with PSC was by going back in time and writing my Grape memoirs of some of the most formative moments in my life. It made me realize that even though I had been dealt a crap hand of cards at that juncture in my life, I’d otherwise been so freaking lucky.
Clémentine, Camille and I in the streets of Greece, summer 2018, post-transplant.
So here’s to keeping all of our memory buckets replenished. I always think now in terms of filling up those memory buckets again and again and again.
For me, I fill it up through travel and being with my girls and Franck. For someone else, their memory bucket could be full of entirely different memories.
To get a peek at what’s in MY bucket, you can download a copy of My Grape Year, the first book in my Grape Series, for free. With that, I am now going to leave and watch Clementine’s basketball game after school, and plan our next trip. Maybe I can get my bucket so full it overflows? Here’s dreaming.
Camille, Clémentine and me on our roof terrace in Apricale, Italy.
Enjoy this? You’ll enjoy my bestselling Grape Series too. Here’s the link.
