Reflection
Summer is nearly over and the Autumn is about to begin. It is my time for reflection. This is the time of year I love. The season is about to change, the kids are going back to school, the world slows down a bit and I start to reminisce about my life and what has happened in the last year. The cooler temperatures, changing leaves and shorter days have always lent themselves to introspection. Sitting near a window, wrapped in a blanket, watching the rain fall…it’s inevitable.
I am also inundated with sense memories.
You know the ones I’m talking about…the memories that slam right into you and bring you back to a moment in time most people have forgotten. Or wish they could forget. The things that trigger these memories in me are sometimes strange.
The theme to a beloved sitcom.
The chill in the air.
A piece of clothing.
An old song.
A smell.
An image.
Autumn leaves.
Getting my daughter ready for school.
A texture.
All of these things can, and have, caused the most visceral memories in me that I sometimes think I am so very different from the rest of the world. I can smell, taste, see and feel that moment as if it were happening for the first time. It’s more than déjà vu. It’s as if I suddenly transported through time back to that very incident.
Doesn’t anyone else have this same kind of reaction?
I’m just odd, I guess.
But this is what Autumn and Winter do to me. I think about what the new year will bring. I make goals. I look forward to Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I wonder at how fast my daughter is growing up. I fear if I take my eyes off of her, if just for a brief second, I will have missed something important. I ponder redecorating/rearranging/reorganizing my home and decorating for the coming seasons. I also reflect on what I have gone through this past year: friendships forged and lost, family drama avoided or plopped directly in my path, mistakes made, lessons hopefully learned.
I make plans and I promise myself I will not make the same mistakes in the future. Sometimes I feel doomed to repeat my transgressions, but mostly I am thankful for what I have learned from them. Even when that lesson was a battle within myself and humbling.
Category: Thoughts
About the Author (Author Profile)
I'm Shan and I 'm the creator of The Asylum and a magnet for The Free Range Stupid™. I'm a little nutty, a lot sarcastic and pretty damn smart. I am also a graphic designer, blog coder, virtual assistant, free lance writer and can whip you up a killer resume, media kit or press release that would make others green with envy. Go to Skewed Design Studios to check out my services. You won't be disappointed.Subscribe
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Shan,
I think a lot people do experience what you talked about to some degree.
I love fall but for some reason as I get older each and every fall doesn’t live up to my expectations. I have very vivid sense memories of fall from being a kid and I think as an adult my senses have dulled. I look forward to fall because of those memories but it just isn’t the same.
It makes me kind of sad, but then I remember that my kids are probably experiencing it more fully and it helps.
Kim @ What’s That Smell? recently posted..I’m never going in my backyard again
Well at least I’m not completely weird. LOL
Well, wait a minute now….LOL
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What? 😛
A little weirdness is all right in my book!
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