Memories, thoughts, and musings…
It seems with each season my thoughts and memories are generated by sensual prompting. The smells, sights, tastes, sensations like heat or cold, and sounds all bring back thoughts, emotions, and other experiences once lived.
Smells in the Spring: Dirt and grass smells mingle when gardening or tending to lawn maintenance. Riding in the countryside with windows down, one can smell farms along the way. My mother loved the smell and my father always said, “there is nothing like the smell of manure, in the air!”
Working in the florist business each season had its own fragrances like hyacinth, hydrangea, roses, chrysanthemum, were odors associated with Easter; geranium signaled Memorial Day or planting time for annuals; the heavy heated air of the “hot houses” carried the scent of tomato plants. My grandfather and best buddy became my first friend as a toddler; he taught me things that were extraordinary like the smell of a tomato plant leaf or even a geranium had oils expressed with gentle pressing between your fingers.
Sounds that evoke memories, dogs barking in the distance, train whistles, carnival music, organ music, opera, traffic noises, crashing waves of the ocean, birds cawing overhead, the list goes on and on. Babies crying, mothers yelling at calling for children to come home. Car brakes screeching to a halt and a crashing sound that follows. Spring peepers, katy did, songbirds during mating season all signal the brain to drift off to another time and place. Even complete silence alerts the mind of an impending “calm be for the storm!” Fireworks or lightning strikes accompanied with loud thundering noises.
Tastes like ice pops, ice cream cones, candy corn or cotton candy, hot dogs and French fries. Turkey dinner, sweet potatoes and stuffing, gravy or sauces, pies like apple, mincemeat, or pumpkin, birthday cakes, homemade puddings like chocolate or butterscotch. So many things made from scratch like my grandmother, aunts, or mother made either from memory or recipes. As a child from post war time meals like pancakes or waffles, spam (yuk), hominy with sugar and butter or salt & butter, all kind of meatless cost-effective meals since rationing was still in effect in earlier years.
Sensations of a gentle breeze or a pounding rain and gusty winds, the softness of pet fur, fuzzy blankets or the silken boarder on the top. The touch and warmth of human skin or the cold clammy feel of a corpse at a funeral. Hot sand on bare feet, contrasted by cold breaking waves sweeping up to grab your feet or the invisible pull of ocean undertow pulling the buoyant objects out to the deep. The prickles of cactus or thorns on a rose, the pine needles on a Christmas tree each convey lessons to those who touch them, some warnings other sweet memories. The wetness of tears, the warmth of blood running down a nose if hit with a punch, even the gentleness of a kiss all conjures up feelings and emotions.
Sights can awaken a sleeping body or stimulate the imagination like the optical vision of heat rising above a desert evoking an oasis-like appearance out of nowhere. Twinkling stars or fairyflies or blinking Christmas lights on a tree whether in or out of doors. For me, I thrive on color, lights, from solar sources in the gardens or battery-operated flameless candles. My imagination thrives on all sorts of stimuli. My mind is never quiet unless deeply under anesthesia. While my days can be busy in physical activities or mental activities like writing and thinking, I am never bored by being alone (almost never). Boredom is a really destructive thing for me, it is a time I seek other forms of stimulation like television or other negative things. I am prone to addictive behaviors for example; I had to quite literally “cold turkey” from cable news. For years, my main viewing was politically informative topics. After the last election, I felt quite despondent and hopeless, identifying the source as cable anchors and guests and their opinions, I agreed with me, myself, & I, that reading and formulating my own opinions was healthier. So for over six months I have cut out the pattern and feel more relieved. Eating was another addictive pattern to alleviate stress. Using “comfort foods” to tend to my insecurities, I became overweight. The solution finally was gastric bypass, unfortunately it also took my sense of enjoyment for flavorful foods with the weight problem.
All in all, I am involved in many memories, thoughts, creative ideas for myself and always for other people and their issues (not always welcome and seemingly not appreciated). For others becoming in tuned with your body’s messaging system you can change some habits or enjoy closing your eyes and reliving old happier times.
jjldee64 
Such memories are wonderful! Thank you for sharing yours.
Thank you, Margot, much appreciated always! Judy