From time to time, I like to explore the often slippery topic of "happiness" and the Human condition.
Lately, I have been considering the many definitions and perceptions of happiness, along with the way many of us are given to pursue happiness, and while each one of us is pursuing this one thing, what we are actually pursuing is a highly individualized thing.
So just because you are pursuing your happiness doesn't mean that your best friend will necessarily have a good understanding of what you are doing, because their interpretation might be quite different.
The beach near where I spent my teenage years. Photo taken by me much later, in 2008
What Color is YOUR Happy?
Looking back to the years of my childhood and teenagehood, I have been considering my happiest moments, trying to establish a pattern. Whereas these moments (locations!) are often all over the map, the one thing that seems to tie them all together is food.
For all intents and purposes, all my happiest moments have involved food, in some context. It might be learning to cook something with my mom, or summer family birthday parties that involved lots of awesome food... or it was even finding food (whether berry picking or fishing) or growing food... having my own small vegetable garden as part of my parents' much larger kitchen garden. Or it could be sitting in an apple tree in the fall, eating apples straight from the tree. Or gathering nuts and roasting them, when we'd get home.
Somehow, my "happy" seems to be directly tied to food. And if not the actual food, itself, to very specific scents of food being cooked.
I am told that "scent memories" are among the strongest we have.
Unripe currants in the sun; in the garden of my childhood home
Time Traveling...
Although my teenage years were not happy by any figment of the imagination... I can still remember fondly the smell of the holidays in our house in the south of Spain, as we started moving in to mid-December.
At that point, I'd be done with school for the rest of that year (till about January 10th) and my mom would be baking. Although it never got directly cold around those parts, we'd occasionally get nights that were just chilly ENOUGH that my stepdad would set a fire in the fireplace. The fireplace was poorly drafted... so the baking smells would mix with woodsmoke in a very specific "winter damp" way.
I often found myself standing at out west-facing living room window — which faced into the prevailing winds — watching raindrops hit the glass and slowly make their way down to the sill below. An "odd" memory for a teenager, perhaps... but there was a strange measure of comfort and contentment in just standing there, watching those raindrops against a backdrop of winter scents.
As a testament to just how strong such memories can be, whenever I encounter a very similar scent in the air, I feel almost immediately transported back to those days... now almost 45 years ago.
Flower in the sun...
We Move Forward... cuz We Can't Go Back
"Time travelling" (in our minds, as well as to places from our past) is an interesting exercise.
Often, it is also disappointing.
What tends to happen is that we can be in the exact same spot, under the exact same conditions... and yet? Something feels different.
And then we realize that what's actually "different" isn't the place, scent or circumstances... but ourselves. We are no longer who we were when we first had the experience. And so, it can only truly be re-lived inside our minds!
I suppose there's a measure of comfort in that... in the sense that we are not static; not stuck in some memory of the past... but constantly moving and evolving.
At least I'd like to think so.
In the meantime, this post was "triggered" by Mrs. Denmarkguy baking pumpkin-squash scones on a rainy Northwest evening while a certain incense we have added that touch of woodsy smoke to the air.
Thanks for reading!
(Another #creativecoin creative non-fiction post)
How about YOU? Do you have any particularly strong memories that tend to be triggered by something very specific like a scent, a sound, music or the like? Do you find yourself "drifting back" when certain conditions are met? Does it feel the same, or do you find that you "can't quite get there?" Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 191007 19:46 PDT
1106
Happiness to me right now would be getting some sleep.
As far as moments they were always on camping and backpacking trips that I enjoyed the most when I was younger. Being in the middle of nowhere with no electronics was happiness. Even when I was unhappy at times that was still a rather happy moment when I look back.
My Happy Memories......?
Seem to be centered around laughter..... Not just laughing.
The Belly Laugh....
You know the kind...... The kind that just happens. Uncontrolled.
Seems these KrazzyTrukkerKitty'z make me Belly Laugh quite often. And I need more of that......