Friday, April 1, 2016

Recollections


The pictures we take and the scrap books we make are solidified memories of good times we have experienced in our lives. These can be holidays, travel, family gatherings, or anything else that is giving us a sense of pleasure at that moment. Enough of it, to want to recall those pleasant memories at some point in time in our future.

Along the same lines, souvenirs can bring the sense of ‘having a good time’ back into our lives. Just by looking at it, handling it, it can bring us back to exactly that point in time when we felt good, looking around, window-shopping, and still ending up with the very item we are looking at right now. It is one of those things that, while they may not immediately bring back the full-blown sense of ‘feeling good’, they are most certainly good for a smile every time the item brings it back to mind.

If we truly like to collect things ~ be it pictures or souvenirs ~ to at some point recollect those good times, we may end up with a lot of ‘stuff’ sitting around. All of it valued, all of it representing a specific time and place, all of it giving us that sense of ‘feeling good’…
And while this is just what some people may want, others may be happier without carrying the burden of these physical recollections. They may have an understanding that if it was that important to us, we will in all likelihood remember the time, the event, the experience, even without needing something physical to hang on to.

As it turns out, one of the most powerful vehicles for our memories to stay with us is scent. A certain scent ~ like a picture or a souvenir ~ can bring us back instantly to that time when we experienced ‘feeling good’, or ‘feeling happy’.
It is just that these scents have a tendency to come upon us unbidden. It may be when we are traveling ~ exploring new territories ~ that a scent whiffs along bringing back those recollections from a different place and a different time…

And the surprising thing of all may well be that it is not whether it is an item that has weight and takes up space that can turn out to be the burden; or even the scent that might come by on a soft Summer breeze. It is the recollection itself that may become the burden, keeping us from experiencing every day as if it were our first day, from making each experience a new experience to us.

And yet, even when we don’t value recollections of any kind, they are still there, ready to pop up when we least expect them…
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