In your workplace or at home base, place an item or items which can have special significance for you. Photos of loved ones, living or dead, obviously qualify. As Greg Pierce reports in an American Catholic paper it might be something as simple as the old sweets tin which had been used to hold favourite little items and owned by a woman’s 17 year old son who had committed suicide. The tin was given by the mother to a friend who keep it in his memento area. He says: Every time I look at it I face the ultimate meaning of life, the sorrow of the family and the despair of the boy. It moves him to a quick moment of prayerful reflection.
People such as school teachers or shop assistants who lack an office or a personal place of work are not barred from using small “sacred” objects like a medal, pin, belt buckle or key chain that connects them with the larger realities. Of course they can have their own sacred place at home.
It is the meaning you invest in the items that counts.
Periodic reflection on just what are these larger realities is surely beneficial.
Allow the items to speak to you: what are they saying, what do they mean. We seek to interpret the message with the mind and heart of Jesus Christ.
A danger in this memento practice is that the items get stale: they can cease to stimulate our imagination. When that happens, a strategy is to re-arrange them, or to use an updated item to recall the treasured memory, or to completely exchange them for something new and fresh.