Remembrance

From the Dark Mansion, the Six of Cups; from Miss Mai's Victorian Oracle, Buckle:

Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.

― Jane Austen

Resentment and nostalgia are two very different kinds of remembrance with very dissimilar impacts on our physical and mental health. The Six of Cups and Buckle ("holding things together") made me think of psychologist Rick Hanson who is a proponent of relishing good memories: "Taking in the good is not about putting a happy shiny face on everything, nor is it about turning away from the hard things in life. It's about nourishing well-being, contentment, and peace inside that are refuges you can always come from and return to." According to Hanson, mentally staying with those positive experiences for a bit can turn a passing mental state into a lasting neural structure. We build our memories into a harbor of resilience.