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Sparking Memories

June 17, 2014 •

As I get older (and hope­fully wiser), I appre­ci­ate the power of pic­tures and sto­ry­telling to engrave mem­o­ries in my brain. Shar­ing high­lights of a trip with friends and fam­ily is one pow­er­ful way to rein­force the mem­o­ries…

Deer Harbor view

Deer Har­bor view

Iconic pic­tures — the ones you show over and over — spark mem­o­ries. Unique fla­vors or aro­mas are also pow­er­ful mem­ory trig­gers.

There are the beau­ti­ful snap­shots…

Boat with greenery growing inside

Boat with green­ery grow­ing inside

…and the quirky ones, the ones that cap­ture some idio­syn­cratic aspect of a place.

Like gar­den fea­tures, local land­scape design, fences or build­ing styles.

Or funny signs you encounter in out-of-the-way places, like a pub­lic walk­ing path on Orcas Island, well past the Deer Har­bor marina.

No parking sign on public path

No park­ing sign on pub­lic path

Wear­ing an out­fit or using some­thing (like hand­made pot­tery) that you bought while trav­el­ing.

Read­ing a mag­a­zine arti­cle, a blog post, or a story set in that city or locale.

birthday-dinner-photoSome­times mem­o­ries are trig­gered by savor­ing rec­ol­lec­tions of a spe­cial meal, like a birth­day or anniver­sary din­ner.

Per­haps you try recipes from a cook­book pro­duced by a celebrity chef who made her mark in a restau­rant you expe­ri­enced (or wanted to visit.)

Some­times you over­hear peo­ple on an air­plane or the sub­way, talk­ing about places you’ve vis­ited. You may jump into their con­ver­sa­tion, and share some rec­om­men­da­tions.

Or you see spe­cialty items in local stores that come from places you love to visit. Like that spe­cial Parisian per­fume.

And you can’t help but grum­ble about how much less they cost there than here! Even after the con­ver­sion from euros to dol­lars.

Some­times you watch a roman­tic movie or a travel doc­u­men­tary on TV, and say to your sig­nif­i­cant other, “Remem­ber when we…?”

And some­times it’s as sim­ple as see­ing the pack­ing list from an ear­lier trip, if you come from a fam­ily of list mak­ers, as I do…

travel-list-photoThe many joys of travel…

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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