Y Talk: Opening the Jar of Memories by Michelle Bell

Two years ago today I got the idea from a friend’s Facebook post to start a Memory Jar for 2019. The idea is that you put items in the jar from different experiences you have throughout the year—or you write about those experiences on slips of paper that you put in the jar. Then on New Year’s Day, you open the jar and go through the memories from the past year.

I absolutely loved the idea. I grabbed a huge pickle jar and cut up differed colored paper into squares and placed them by the empty jar waiting for memories to be made. I did a pretty good job with it through May. Then I slacked off for much of the rest of the year. I went back and added memories after the fact from our summer trip to Italy with Isaiah and squeezed in a few from the end of December.

After eating our traditional meal of pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day, we took turns reading the memories we had written over the year. (I use the term “we” loosely since only 6 of the 41 memories were written by someone other than me.) It was fun to reminisce about each of the events and I quickly decided this was something I wanted to do again.

So, I cut up more squares of paper and placed them by the freshly emptied pickle jar. This time I displayed the jar prominently on the island in our kitchen so I would be reminded often to record memories throughout the year. If only I had known then what kind of a year we were going to have!

I’m writing this on New Year’s Eve. While I don’t know exactly how many memories are in the jar this year, I can tell it’s definitely more than 41. There were spans when I didn’t write as much, but I don’t feel like I completely abandoned it at any point in 2020 like I did for nearly half of 2019.

I’m excited to sit down to our pork and sauerkraut dinner tomorrow and read through the memories. 2020 definitely didn’t go as we had hoped and planned. But I know a lot of memories were made that otherwise would not have been if everything had turned out like we thought it would.

And by the time the dishes are cleared, I’ll have the empty jar and freshly cut squares of paper ready to accept whatever memories await us in 2021!

-by Michelle Bell, Marketing Director