Being totally random...

Our Senses

A totally random thought came to me tonight while I was cooking tea, and also watching 'Masterchef' on TV.

How much do we rely on our senses? And how often do they remind us of totally random events?

Just while pondering this, a flood of memories came back to me when I thought about different smells, tastes, sounds, textures etc. The more I thought about them, the more others kept coming to mind that I hadn't thought about or remembered for years and years.

It was like a whole new library was opened up before my eyes, and the amazing thing was that the memories that came back to me were generally positive and enjoyable ones. Maybe it's because I always look for the positives in all that I do rather than the negatives?

Who knows, but I certainly enjoy reliving the great memories of my life.

So, here are a few just for starters...

• Wiping the last bits of gravy off your plate with a folded piece of buttered bread
• Walking through a puddle in gumboots (sloshing sound is clear here!) and the sensation when it finally goes over the top of your boots and into where your foot is.
• The sound of kids laughing, REALLY laughing, and it reminds you of moments when you had the same experience.
• Terrible smells...the Principal's office (Secondary school was more scarier than Primary school!), the Dorm Master's room at Boarding school, the room you wait in before going in for an interview, the 'something is wrong with my car' smell.
• The smell of the chocolate pudding our mum use to make ( and none of us have ever got close to replicating)
• Walking into the house after work and smelling tea already cooking, and wondering what it is. Or even recognising what it is and thinking 'YES!!!"
• The smell of your mum or dad or child when you are snuggling them when they, or you are sick.
• The warmth of the 'sick snuggle'!
• The smell of your own car.
• The sounds that your car makes that worry others, but you know 'Everything's alright!'
• The sounds your body makes...clicks, clunks, squeaks...or is that just mine!!!
• Going somewhere and smelling something and it reminds you of a moment years before that you'd otherwise never recall. I went through a run in the nearby bush recently and the smells brought back clear, vivid memories of nicking off into the bush behind the school I went to in Rushworth as a kid. The nuns would crack it whenever we got caught playing in the bush, but it was the best playground ever!! And it never stopped us from playing there!!
• The warmth of lake water on a really hot day.
• Tasting something as an adult and loving it, but remembering how disgusting it was when you tasted it as a kid. eg Smoked cod, tomatoes, yogurt, cheese, custard, peas, pizza
• Remembering every groove and scratch that was on your old desk at school.
• The smell of plasticene in Gr 2 (mine was blue!)
• The sounds of a really hot day...cicadas, lazy crows.

The more I think of them , the more I remember. I could just keep adding to this list.

So, if you are one of the many anonymous readers (who still has not left a comment!! Next to do so is a dead set legend!!) add some of your own sensations, I'd love to compare.

Above all, be acutely aware of how much our senses bring back so much of our past, not just the present!!