1 Samuel by Sally Van Doren

Please remember that the clock is ticking both at the top of the minute and the bottom of the minute so time is going faster than you realize and it's harder to keep track of.

Please remember that forgetting is not a sin.

Please remember that I have tried to love you as best as I could, that sometimes I don't know what love really means, that I know what it is to sweat as I am walking uphill, that I know what it is to smell the coffee steaming out of the cup of the person sitting next to me.

Please remember that I don't drink coffee and that I have some fraught relationships with several people in my life.

Please remember that I think of myself as someone who gets along with people so the fact that these few people are not particularly nice to me is sometimes hurtful until I get over it, usually because it turns out these few people are not nice to anyone. Their animosity toward me is nothing special.

Please remember that I am still in the dark about myself even though I am in the likely third trimester of my life.

Please remember to give the steel cut oatmeal I made this morning to your mother before you take her to the doctor today.

Please remember to take my green pashmina shawl home to see if you would like to wear it to the wedding next weekend.

Please don't bite your fingernails.

Please don't get depressed.

Please don't run out of money.

Please remember that this is about remembering, not predicting.

Please remember that I was five once and I want to be five forever and ever.