The Flint Hills Writing Project (@FHWP) at Emporia State University (Go Hornets! #StingersUp) started a Writing Into the Day/Writing Out of the Day writing prompt series during this period of social distancing. This is a great idea from a great group of writers and writing enthusiasts. I’m going to try and keep up as I can and post my efforts.
Writing Into the Day – 3/24/20 prompt is Smells and the memories they bring back to the surface.
Smells trigger memories. Like the scent of hamburgers cooking on a charcoal grill two blocks over, that takes you back to 1974 and the family picnic on grandpa’s brand-spanking-new limestone patio and his hamburgers cooking on the grill. Or how the first whiff after opening a Strawberry Hill Baking Co. loaf of povitica floods the brain with memories of the Croatian great-aunts rolling out the sweet bread dough on the kitchen table.
Memories and smell. The brain and the senses. We are constantly aware of the interaction of sight, touch, taste, and hearing with our brain. It is awareness in real-time.
The sense of smell, though, acts below the level of awareness pathways of the brain. It is a connection that is primitive and innate. Smell makes our food taste better, look better, sound better, and even probably feel better. It is underlying all things. We hardly even notice this sense doing its work. The sense of smell is evolutionarily tied to memory. It’s like the label of the synaptic filing of memories. Ah yes! Christmas tree smell triggers feelings of pleasant times from the past. The memories trigger neurochemical and hormonal responses to literally take the body and the brain back in time.
So take a deep, long sniff. Pay attention to those smells. Pay attention to what the brain has stored and then enjoy the bubbling up of memories.
After that, exhale deeply and get to work creating new memories.
