Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 40: The Ghosts of Happy Winters Past

 

As we move more deeply into Winter, do you find seasonal smells, flavours, sights and sounds trigger memories of Winters past? It's fascinating to me how strongly our senses can spark recollections, sometimes with an almost shocking immediacy. This is most often the case when the memory trigger is something you don't encounter frequently. As there are certain sights, sounds, aromas etc that you only tend to experience during Winter, coming into contact with them can bring back strong seasonal memories. You can use these sense memories positively to recall happy times in the past. They're also used in industries such as retail and hospitality to try to engender 'holiday spirit' - that's why we get bombarded with Christmas music at this time of year!

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 40

The Ghosts of Happy Winters Past

One of the first posts I wrote on the subject of Winter Blessings and Beauties was about Winter Senses. If you made a list of Winter Senses, you may find it interesting to use it as a prompt to help recall happy Winter memories. You may have fully-fledged, detailed memories of social occasions or particular locations, but tiny, vivid vignettes can be just as interesting and enjoyable to recall. For example there's a particular song that whenever I hear it, I'm taken back to a dazzlingly bright and very cold and frosty morning when I was driving to work. It must have been playing on the radio, because whenever I hear it I vividly remember the beauty of the frozen landscape, brilliantly illuminated by the light of the rising sun, and the way I felt both slightly resentful at having to be up and out so early in the morning and exhilarated by the cold air and bright sun.

Try writing down some of the good memories that come up for you in response to Winter prompts such as the smell of woodsmoke... the taste of a mince pie... the melody of your favourite carol...

If you have vivid memories of a special time you shared with family, friends or loved ones, try writing it out as a unique gift for them. You could handwrite it inside a special card, or type it up on the computer and print it out on fancy paper.