Forgotten More than I Remember
It is very easy to say “I have forgotten more things than I remember”
But it is funny how something someone says can trigger a memory, how something you see or a song you hear can unlock something that may be years old in your head. Or maybe a smell. I have heard it say that smells are the strongest sense that connects us to recollection of our past.
Today I opened the back door to let the dogs out in the yard, and got the strong smell of pine trees washing its way back in the door on the cool morning air. Immediately I propelled decades back to a day when my best high school chums and I had gone up in the northern woods to stay at a cabin. We had partied pretty hard ( as we were known to do in those days) and we had all gotten up early for some reason. We were sitting on the deck in front of the cabin and chasing “the hair of the dog” (which we were also known to do in those days).
The morning was glorious, the sun was rising over the pines. There were blue-jays in the trees calling out their sharp retort, and loons on the lake ( if you have never hear laughing loons- it is a treat of nature)l The lake was like a mirror and swirls of fish could be seen all over the lake as they came up to feed. The smell of pine was floating over the lake.
We had music playing in the back ground. It was some sort of jazz music. We were listening to so much stuff back then but it was saxophone ( Turrentine, Washington. or something like that). It was a moment to cherish. It was an idyllic moment that we would let come and go on our youthful travel forward.
Maybe that’s why the memory came back today in the simple opening of a door? This precious moment that in my youth was something nice, but in my older years ( and wiser I hope) it means so much more. It is remembering something that was so rich and full of life. It is good to remember that in my minds-eye. A gift.
Tracks In The Dust 