Where is one of your happy places? This is a photo from our deck in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona. This is one of mine. All the memories of family times since I was twelve years old flood back when I see this picture. I can almost hear the creek rushing by. Let me just say that this water is frigid but I loved swimming in it with my mom. There were birthday celebrations, wee ones getting their feet in the water for the first time, fishing, card games, barbecues and catching crawdads. But mostly it was the sitting outside in lawn chairs and just having a cup of coffee and conversation.
What smells or tastes bring pleasant memories to mind for you? Yesterday I made pinto beans like my sister. She always had a gallon of beans to send me home with since she knew hers were my favorite. I learned a couple years before she died that her secret was using a ham bone that she had baked in the beans. Here I had been just putting one in right from the store. Easter we had a ham so I had a Teri approved ham bone. You guessed it. The smell and taste of that pot of beans made it seem like my generous sister had made them.
Sometimes it is a song or sound that takes us back to a warm moment. I know that although losing our first adopted son to his mother’s love and mind change was tough, it was God’s plan. I always remember holding him tight in the last hour before she came to take him home singing Somebody Loves You by Crystal Gayle. He was two months old and now just turned forty. I still pray for him and hope his life is fulfilling. The truth is he may never have been told about the two months he spent in my arms but I know. I love that even now, decades later, there is somebody who loves him quietly and prayers for his safety.
Whether it is visual or some other sense that brings up our past moments they are little pearls that lead us back to another time. I love that the fish in my fish tank remind me of my Grandma Peabody. That I will be generous and know I got that from my dad. Even when I get miffed and raise an eyebrow it feels like I am channeling my mom. In a couple days I will be sixty-eight. That is no spring chicken. But I love all the decades of life I have lived with people who are still in arm’s reach and those I will see again someday.
Take a bit of time to notice when something catches your thoughts with a memory and smile. What a gift we have in our memories and moments. Even sleeping with a pair of wet Levi’s in a bathroom to keep the light out of my eyes makes me laugh. Yes, I was cold but that uncomfortable night of sort of camping in a thunderstorm gave me my lifelong friend and bestie, Susi. Perhaps she would be willing to take a roadtrip and recreate the moment. After all she says yes even when it is a bad idea sometimes.
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