Day 11 : How to Not Forget : Part 4

Not every event in your life can or should be photographed or written about. Sometimes we just have to soak in the moments so completely that they are permanently absorbed in our memories. Most moments are just that - momentary. Gone in a matter of minutes or seconds. Moving on to the next thing.

But some moments are so special to us that we repeat them over and over. We call these moments traditions. It's regular, but not routine. It's something that stays with us, like listening to a favorite song on repeat.

Saturday pancakes are a tradition for our family. Almost every Saturday, we all get up and make pancakes together. No pancake mixes allowed. I make them "from my own flour" as my Mamaw would say. Judah also assists in the mixing and flipping and eating of pancake batter. {I think this is gross, but he likes it. Yes, there's raw egg, but who doesn't love to lick the bowl of brownie batter? Come on.} 

We soften butter in a small blue ramekin, get out the real organic maple syrup, set the table, join hands and ask God to bless our food. It's also become tradition that I am the one who prays over the Saturday pancakes. Then we talk about how crazy good pancakes are. Then Lyle usually has some new music for us to listen to. 

It's not a huge deal, but we love it. And I know that as long as my memory serves me well, I will not forget Saturday pancakes. 

How do we not forget? We make and keep traditions. We intentionally create moments we want to remember. Then, we repeat these events that we enjoy, so that we have opportunity to remember them often. I read recently that when you remember something, you aren't recalling the actual event, you are remembering the last time you remembered it. This, of course, has its flaws, but it tells me that if I want to remember, I need to remember often.

Every Saturday morning of pancakes reminds me of several previous Saturday pancakes. Just this morning I was remembering the first Saturday pancakes after Judah was born almost two years ago. I made "One Hand Pancakes" that day because one hand was full of a new baby, leaving only one hand available to measure, mix, pour, and flip. 

This is Judah's helper spot with his favorite whisk.

He measures our the brown sugar -
there's really no measurement, I just let him put in sugar 'til he's done.

That's Judah flipping his Judah pancake.
He gets one little pancake per round of pancakes on the griddle.
It's how I keep him from total pancake meltdown waiting on breakfast.

When I do a brief memory skim of my life, the events I recall most quickly are the ones we repeat consistently, like holiday or vacation traditions. I may not be able to recall every single one of these events, but I remember the way I felt or something smelled or someone laughed. The memories are stronger, it seems to me, because the events recur regularly.

I want to give caution, however, to making and keeping traditions. Tend to the spirit of the tradition as you are keeping the motions of the tradition. Tradition can bind us, keep us from growing, smother and suffocate if the reasons for these traditions aren't at the forefront of doing them.

We do Saturday pancakes primarily because we get to be together as a family for breakfast {the only day of the week this happens}. We do it because I enjoy cooking and teaching my son that it's important to know how to cook. We love the conversation and the hot coffee.

If we were only held by the motion of the tradition, then there would be miserable mornings when I was too tired to cook or we were out of syrup or we didn't have any clean forks {it's happened} where we would bust our tails trying to make it happen because it's Saturday Pancakes. We have to have pancakes. Made by me. In our house. We would end up hating Saturdays, but continuing the tradition because it's tradition. 

Fortunately, we maintain that our greatest motivator is that we get to be together, so we've spent a few Saturday mornings at a local diner, eating pancakes or eggs or whatever we want. And the diner outing has become a sort of back-up tradition. Because our desire to be together is greater than the desire for an absolute set formula for Saturday pancakes. 

What traditions do you have with your nearest-and-dearest? What traditions would you like to start? What traditions need a makeover? What traditions need to be discontinued?

We'd love to know!

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This is the eleventh post in the series 31 Days of Not Forgetting.

If you'd like to read previous posts in the series, click here and scroll to the bottom.