Summer Apples

Have you ever found yourself traveling through life and in a moment you are thrown back in time due to a smell, song on the radio, or just a feeling in the air?

Well friends let me share my today with you.

After a busy holiday season, I have finally had a day to myself to reflect and project. We are over one week into the new year, and today was my day to consider the days, weeks and months ahead of me. There are changes in the wind for us (as a family), risks to be taken, advances to be made, and with all of this comes a certain level of uncertainty. I know all of you reading know exactly what I’m talking about. I spent much of my morning on and off the phone with my mother, passing things by her, talking my way through the waters that I’m navigating. I am so blessed to have a mother who simply listens (endlessly....poor woman), she gives me suggestions, and shares bits and pieces from her journey, allowing me to extract what I want and need from her story. Words from wiser, well traveled people are almost like an anti virus serum that can protect us from contracting unnecessary situations as we travel through life.

Moving along......my youngest daughter and I needed to do some much needed unpacking of our ‘holiday car’ ~ you know the drill, candy canes stuck to the carpet, dirt, grim and mud everywhere, the odd dried up MacDonald’s fry in between the seats, spilled Starbucks in the cup holders....fun, fun, fun. As we headed to the garage I walked straight into and old familiar smell, that as I said threw me straight back to my childhood years. It was the smell of Summer Apples, that came every year when the fruit truck arrived in our community. The smell of those apples saturated us, and it’s a smell I associate with my younger years.

I remember the excitement, knowing that the fruit truck was soon to arrive at our neighbors house (the same house every year). The day it would arrive, we would pile into the car, the windows down (no air conditioning then), the radio was on, and away we went in search of the best fruit in town. There were peaches, pears, cherries, apricots and the plums.....yummo. Strangely enough the apple was the smell that permeated the air.

So, today some 30 years later, I have found myself considering the year/s ahead. Uncertainty filled my mind, moments of fear tried to creep in, concern definitely found a home, and as I walked toward the job at hand, within a millisecond I was thrown back to a place in time where everything stood still. I could see my mother negotiating her purchases, I could hear the voices of my childhood friends, I could see the strange old fruit man standing on the truck yelling out prices, and I could taste the sweetness of the peaches that were on sample for all to try. In that millisecond every thought I had exercised today was brought back into perspective for me. I felt safe and secure in the knowledge that no matter what lies ahead, it will be okay, the days will turn into weeks, the weeks into years and we will remain standing.

I pray that in my home and through my children’s childhood there are familiar smells, sounds and feelings that in 30 more years will bring the same feeling I have felt today. It is our today’s that make the difference in tomorrow and beyond. Be wise, be happy and love lots!

Susan xo