Travel with me...
This morning, I opened a new packet of T-shirts. There's something refreshing about that - smelling - sensing - the perfectly clean, never-before-laundered, shining white, T-shirts - actually taking a strong, deep, inhale of that cloth...
Stop.
This took me to a place I had not at all planned to go.
You see, I inherited these T-shirts from my Dad, who passed away five years ago. The shirts had been in his old chest of drawers (who knows how long?), in their wrapping, untouched. I only recently discovered the package myself in a different box of belongings. But, what I never imagined, was that the aroma of my Dad's aftershave had actually penetrated that plastic after those years, and was still there this morning.
My heart stopped for just a moment as I became thirteen years old again, if only for a moment. All of a sudden, Dad was in the room - with me.
I have had countless similar experiences while listening to music - memories flooding back from performances of years ago, many fond memories, many painful, but all real. As though we were there again, the friends I had known in those performances were here again and the meanings of those pieces in my own life - how could I have ever forgotten! The buildings, the countries, the smell of local foods, and many other elements, were completely present again in just a flash.
And yet, even knowing the reality of these experiences through the sense of hearing music, I was still overtaken this morning that my sense of smell was in control of me - not the other way around.
I learned a lesson again this morning for the "umpteenth" time: my senses have direct contact with my emotions and when activated together, they have the ability to whisk me places I never planned to go.
Take a moment today, if possible, and listen to one or two of these:
Go with me on one of these journeys. Though the details will be completely different, we will still have traveled together.
God bless your day.
Jim