Monthly Archives: November 2020

scents and sensibility.

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The New York Times recently published an article in which they discuss the power of scents to transport us. “Scents and memory are inextricably tied together – the smell of a grandmother’s house, a childhood pet, or a particular brew of morning tea.” NYT restaurant critic, Tejal Rao, has even has created a “Smell Museum” of her life in LA, cataloging the aromas she encountered in her home and office. The paper asked readers to send them their scent memories. This got me thinking about my own scent memories:

 Freshly cut grass – brings me back to my childhood Saturday mornings, waking up to my dad mowing the lawn, windows open, curtains blowing

Jergen’s Lotion (Original Scent) – Almond and Cherry – the lotion my mother bought and we all used

Coffee brewing – When I was pregnant with my first daughter, I was drawn to this amazing aroma and I never have stopped loving it

Baby’s Heads – Always takes me instantly back to when my babies were little

Herbal Essense Shampoo – (Original Scent )- My teen years, and trying to figure out life, I felt beautiful when using this shampoo on my hair

 

What are some of your scent memories? Good or bad –

“nothing revives the past so completely as a smell that was once associated with it.”

  • -vladimir nabokov

 

 

credits: NYT – Jaspal Rivait, Melissa Kirch, Tejal Rao

nursery rhymes.

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“read to your children all of the time

novels and nursery rhymes

autobiographies, even the newspaper

it doesn’t matter; it’s quality time

because once upon a time

we grew up on stories in the voices in which they were told

we need words to hold us and the world to behold us

for us to truly know our souls.”

-taylor mali

in honor of world nursery rhyme week

 

 

 

 

image credit: 1930s vintage etsy art

more excited.

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(not me,  a famous model who is a couple of years older, but we share a strong birthday spirit)

it has been my birthday for 5 hours already

 and according to my math

each year

i become less worried

about life

  and

i become more excited

about this day

in the exact same amounts

which equals out. 

“surround yourself with people who are more excited about your birthday than you are.” 

-word porn

cards.

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full deck of cards found on election day

did the player win, lose, or draw?

 

 

“life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

robert louis stevenson

mixed message.

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fashion fad: mittens are the new shoes.

 

“organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”

-a.a. milne

carry.

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feeling safe walking the streets of ann arbor with these powerfully kind grandies

 

“sports are sports. it’s all about how we carry ourselves out of the ring.”

-george foreman

mysteries, yes.

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“MYSTERIES, YES”

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous

to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the

mouths of the lambs.

How rivers and stones are forever

in allegiance with gravity

while we ourselves dream of rising.

How two hands touch and the bonds

will never be broken.

How people come, from delight or the

scars of damage,

to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those

who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say

“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,

and bow their heads.”

Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

on world kindness day.

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little one comforting the littler ones.

 

“if you have an impulse to kindness, act on it.”

-douglas coupland

backwards.

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and why not turn around and create your shaving cream art while backwards? 

all it takes is a fresh idea and a willingness to try a new approach. 

“i think backwards. ‘this was beautiful,’ instead of forward.”

-alice herz-sommer

on veterans day.

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“i think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom.”

-bob dylan

thank you to veterans everywhere