memories

Its funny how certain things can trigger a memory and take you back to another place and time. How the sight of something in everyday life can make you think about people you love. Or how thinking about that person leads you to think of things that are unique to your memories of them. We all have people in our lives that have helped shape our past and who continue to shape our present. These memories can be trigger by the things we hear, see and smell.

Whenever I see an African Violet I can close my eyes and see my Grandmas dining room windowsill where she grew her Violets. Memories of my Grandma include the smell of ceramic dust. Divinity. Ham salad. Green shag carpet. Driving over the dip in the road super fast just so we could get that crazy little feeling in your tummy. Helping to hang the laundry on the line... and then getting in trouble for running through them just to smell the wind as it blew through the sheets.

The sight of yellow Tonka trucks. Cucumbers growing on the vine. Spaghetti. Musty sheds with treasures to explore. Homemade wine in white plastic vats on the kitchen floor. All these take me back to being a little girl with a grandpa that always took the time to make me feel like he would not want to be anywhere else but right there with me.

The opening song to Jeopardy. Huge scoops of ice cream that my children still to this day refer to as "Papa scoops". Roast beef smothered in gravy. M*A*S*H. Dessert of any kind. Hostess crumb cakes. The smell of saw dust. All memories of a dad who died way to young.

Every Thanksgiving the smell of turkey cooking makes me think of my mom. Pineapple upside down cake, which I don't think mom liked but she made for my dad because he did. Biscuits and gravy. Packing for ski trips. The joy of seeing her grandchildren for the first time. The smell of hair color and women talking about nothing.

Obviously, these people were in my daily life and shaped much of my history. But there are little things that can trigger a moment in time. The smell of baby powder reminds me of meeting Sutton for the first time at the orphanage. I hear Amazing Grace and I can close my eyes and I am standing in a cemetery listening to Andrew play his trumpet as we buried my dad.

And there are things that make you smile and immediately think of someone. Peanut butter on a tortilla always reminds me of trips to Haiti with Gretchen, mothering her by making her eat something before we started our day. Chucks with cuffed jeans and popcorn memories of Angela and I watching dance theater at St. Joseph's in Haiti for the 50th or 60th time. Red wine always brings thoughts of Lynn and the look in her eye when she sips a really good glass of her favorite wine.

I hear the theme song of Stars Wars and I'm 13 again, loving a precious little boy, Joshua, who helped shape me into the mother I am today. "Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my..." thoughts of that little boys mom, Jeannie and good times on Broken Lance Ct.

The smell of chili cooking reminds me of my friend, Bonnie. We would leave school on those days when the coastal fog wouldn't burn off and we would be freezing. We would head for my house knowing my dad had left for work and there was a crock pot full of his chili waiting for us, instead of being in class where we should have been. Just seeing the Indianapolis Colts play and I'm sitting at the Montana in Haiti with Michelle, Bethany, Tanya, Angela, Jody and Jimmy watching the Super Bowl. Eating hamburgers and enjoying ice cold Prestige. And the list goes on and on.

So many memories made. So many waiting to be made. Joys and sorrows. Success and failure. Family and friends. Life as it was. Memories. A moment in time. Thoughts and feelings to get you through the worst of times and make you laugh during the best. Each unique and unchanging. The beauty of the life we are given.