Nostalgia

nos•tal•gia  n.

a wistful or sentimental longing for places, things, acquaintances, or conditions belonging to the past.

I've been feeling extremely nostalgic the past few days.  I think it is partly due to the fact that my twin sister will soon be moving back to the town where we grew up.  I am secretly envious, but even more so, beyond happy for her and her little family.  

2010

I enjoy those sudden moments of nostalgia.  Brought on by a smell, a sound, a taste, a touch. So fleeting. Sometimes its bittersweet though, remembering the past and knowing that those moments only exist now in memory.  

My everyday routine always sparks a tumble of memories.  I am well known amongst my family for remembering somewhat ordinary events in great detail and it only takes a sniff of perfume or a song on the radio to bring me back in time and a wave of sentiment washes over me.

Eating a cheese quesadilla with peaches and suddenly I am 5 years old in the backyard of the home I grew up in.  Sitting underneath an A-frame I created with our plastic folding "beach" lounge chairs I am shaded from the sun.  I can still smell the lilacs that lined the back fence.

The smell of wood warming in the sun and I am transported to our summer weeklong trips to Vail. The sunshine beating onto the pine tree bark, softening the vanilla smelling sap.  

Almost every day at work I pass one of the tour guides in the kitchen.  Her perfume brings me back to visits with my Grandma Ruth.  It's the same perfume she wore.  After my grandparents would leave I would go down to the basement where they would stay and stand on the orange shag carpet, breathing in the lovely smell which would often times linger for days after.

I love to think about the complexity of our brains and how something so ordinary can trigger such a detailed trip to my past  An incredible filing system must be in place!