I was looking at Christie’s blog the other day and I found several posts she hadn’t completed. I thought even though they weren’t completely finished they were still worthy to share. Christie has SO much wisdom to share. Sorry I didn’t know how to make it all pretty like she did, but here is one of the “unfinished” posts!

by Christie Perkins

I woke up one morning with a firm thought. “You need to make memories.”

Now I was in a stage of life where I had toddler kids that needed my constant attention and my house equally begged for some undivided time. But my focus was constantly on the house.

I liked a clean house. I loved how it made me feel when it was reflecting sunlight and seething of lemon bleach instead of crummy milk splotched blotches. Ahhh. It felt like sunshine freshness and glittered up my smile.

Yet. Somehow my focus was all off. I was out of balance.

I had set up this fabulous work day. We were going to trim the bushes, clean the garage, and clean the house. I was excited about the opportunity for my “ah moment” when this was all going to be done.

But, as soon as my eyes opened up the change of plans was thrown at me. It was just a thought. But it was loud and it was clear. “You need to make memories.”

Oh we do, I thought. But then I thought… for the last several Saturdays we worked on projects and cleaning the house. And that’s what we did with our spare time. In fact, is that all we ever did on Saturdays? I had to think.

I wanted my kids to learn to work. I felt very strong about growing men with proper work ethics. But, instead I was creating boys with proper toy slots. On Saturday’s we looked at toys, we didn’t play with them.

How awesome is that?

Don’t answer.

Anyway. I’m convinced the thought was a turning point for me. I needed to find a little balance but mostly I needed to create memories. Correction: I needed to create fun memories.

I have no idea what we did that day (must have not been very fun… hey, I needed a little practice 😉 )

Cancer Kicks Memories Into High Gear:

So many years after that rude awakening thought I was diagnosed with cancer. It was then that I realized the importance of this message. It was then that I realized that Heavenly Father has a plan for me and was watching out for me. It was then that I realized that time is incredibly short. No matter how long you live there is never enough time.

Memories are glue that bond us.

And once again I am reminded of the power of memories. My dear friend Janna just passed away from appendix cancer recently. And I realized that the thing that lifted my heart was the memories. The flour fight we had in the kitchen (ahem… not recommended by the way), the blindfolded date nights in the back of an empty furniture truck, the game nights at her dad’s furniture shop, the lunches at her house; the fun we had.

And come to think of it… I can’t remember one gift we exchanged, or even a boring moment that we had. Though, I’m sure we did. The memories that rise to the top are the ones that were different, or we created together, or new experiences we ventured through. I did a lot of (good) things that I never did before with Janna.

And memories are what rescued me when she passed on.

Memories helped me to solidify my friendship with her. Relationships need memories. It is the food that feeds the heart. And since I’m living this year with “no regrets,” I am making even a bigger effort to make memories and follow the thought to make memories.

Memories/ misconceptions Necessities to Keep in Mind:

Memories don’t need money: now this is mostly true be creative. But, I have come to learn that sometimes memories do need money. Sometimes it requires a sacrifice of money. For the longest time I hoarded money. It was my safety net. If I had money I felt safe. But I realized that I actually needed to spend money to make memories. And I just had to tell myself that that was okay. And the funny thing was that once I spent my money on a family trip and it was gone. I realized that I had just filled our heads with experiences that would have been spent on piddly stuff.

And that was a big eye opener to me. We don’t have to be extreme and I believe in living within your means but I know that if you make it happen you will find yourself going without the other things that are just things that you thought you needed. Memories are more powerful than gifts.

Life isn’t about how much money you make… it’s about how much memories you’ve banked.