Come To Your Senses

It's amazing what triggers memories in our lives from our five senses. The smell of fresh baked bread takes my right back into Grandma's kitchen, watching her carefully taking loaves off the inside rack in her old Magic Chef oven. The taste of cotton candy will take me to parish and school picnics from years past. To hear "Isn't Life Strange" by The Moody Blues, puts me in the arms a certain boy when I was 15 years old, and will always makes me smile. ; )

They say we lose our memories as we get older, with dementia or Altzheimer's. Apparently, the part of our brain that controls our association with these specific memories (hippocampus), is the first part that atrophies with this disease. I had a great aunt with this disease, and she often rambled on about events that took place in her youth with her siblings, at the old family farm. I often wondered why her rants were so crystal clear to her, but to no one else in the room. Questioning if they were triggered by some type of deja vu or one of her five senses taking over. They may have been real or, maybe they were made up in her feeble imagination. Most would tell her she was crazy, but I played along with her conversations and asked more questions. They were interesting - crazy, but interesting.

The association of the five senses to our memory can be overpowering at times. I've instilled this in my children, unknowingly. If they come into the house and smell oregano and garlic, they want to take food back to their own homes. They are instantly hungry and give me hugs. Music was continually played very loudly in the house, during my single mom years, when my kids were growing up. I also played classical music on the piano. They are both huge fans of a variety of music. The Baby, a huge Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix fan, and The Boy loves almost all classic rock. To soothe them on their blue days, I would get them quiet, usually with hugs, and play Pachabel, as they laid still. They cheered me when I learned a new piece on the piano. Hopefully, most of the associations ignited in my motherhood, will bring smiles and sweet recollections in their years to come.

Unfortunately, it works both ways. The sound of a drill can bring me back to a mad scientist of a dentist when I was eight years old. The taste of blood, the salt of tears, and the smell of a particular cologne, can remind me of the most unpleasant times in my childhood that should never have happened and can never be forgotten.

It may seem unfair to have both types of memories, bound together. It's worth repeating that my personal way to forgiveness, is to remember I would not realize how good the good really was, unless I had had the bad. In my life, the "I Ching" philosophy of Yin and Yang has had added a new reflection of understanding in my life, as well as the title is quite amusing to me. ; )

All of this leads me to the point of this writing. To those who care for me, if I am lucky enough to make it to old age and dementia: Again, PLEASE, leave the iPod alone and the ear buds in. Once in awhile, give me cotton candy, though I'll probably make a real mess of myself. If I ramble, let it ride and listen. Don't tell me I'm crazy. I get enough of that now.

"Isn't life strange, a turn of the page, a book without light, unless with love we write." -- John Lodge