1 . What’s the first thing you remember doing? It could be playing with your friends at school, or going to a birthday party and eating amazing cake.     1     Did those special moments really happen or did we make them up?

It’s a strange concept to grasp, but according to research, about four out of ten of us invent our first childhood memory. Rather than having experienced something, we could have fabricated a fake memory from videos or photos we’ve seen. We could have been influenced by a story recounted to us that spurs our minds on to adopt someone else’s memory as our own.     2    

    3     Well, our ability to retain memories from before the age of two isn’t great. While at that age we do have short-term memories, according to Catherine Loveday, an expert in autobiographical memory at the University of Westminster, the memories that infants make are not long-lasting.     4     Some scientists also believe that as we get older, our childhood memories fade and after the age of seven, we get some kind of “childhood amnesia (健忘症)”.

So why do we create fake memories? Some experts believe that there is a clear desire for a sense of self and having a cohesive (连贯的) story of our existence.     5     As we get older, we want to have a complete picture of our entire lives.

So, the next time someone says they have a clear memory from when they were one or even before just remember that while it could be true, there’s a chance they just invented it at some point in their lives.

8 . My adult son walked to the table this morning for breakfast and opened his arms to me. I opened my arms too and gave him a big hug just like I do every morning. And this time when I did, a beautiful memory came back to me. It is ________ how one simple act of love can forever ________ one’s soul.

My Italian Granny had been a big hugger when I was a boy, but my mom had grown up in a more ________ household. She hugged me sometimes but less often as I grew into my teenage years. By the time I was a teenager then, except for my Granny, I didn’t hug anyone.

When I was sixteen, I left on a trip with a group to ________ a Seminary College in the Mid-West. And on our way there, we also stopped by an old Monastery. As we entered, we were ________ there by the largest monk I had ever seen. He was over six and a half feet tall with huge arms and a ________ voice. And as he greeted us, he gave each one of us a HUGE HUG. When my own turn came, I felt scared but ________ in and hugged him back. I felt a warmth in my heart. Later that day I began to wonder why I had ever stopped giving and receiving hugs when they brought so much ________. When my own children were born then I ________ to never stop hugging them and telling them I loved them.

What use are arms, after all, if we can’t use them to hug each other. What use are lips if we can’t say “I Love You!” God gives us ________ ways to share our kindness and delight here. Let’s use them all to share our love.