I’ve been thinking a lot about spring and the sensations we’re all experiencing with the waking of the season. Everything is fully engaged in the world’s re-ignition, including the singing birds and new buds of a complicated vine. Every living and breathing being is enjoying these sensations, and it’s a beautiful thing to see the world around us wake from its deep, long and restful nap. The colors are somehow brighter, more vivid and the sounds are so spectacular.
On my morning beach walk today, the air is a stew-like mixture of chilled wind folded in with warm and toasty light. The sun’s warmth meets the brisk morning temperature and it’s so utterly perfect. I left the house thinking I should wear a light knit hat and by the end of my romp I could feel that I had broken the smallest sweat, little beads forming on my nose.
Sensory overload is something that can also bring us great joy and re-invigorate our energy reserves. When I’m getting ready to start my day, I feel so energized when I’ve satisfied all my senses, including visual or sight. I grab something that is meaningful from my jewelry box that seems essential to wear close to my heart… and I’m off to start my day!
I’ve been thinking of
The Storybook Necklace as a piece that can ignite the senses and give a meaningful feeling. Sure, it’s a physical thing, a material object – but it’s also something that can evoke beautiful memories that can tug on your heart strings.
I was thinking a lot about
my Gram over the weekend as I gathered friends to celebrate my birthday. I could smell Gram’s brownies that only she could make so perfectly. The sugar’s texture was almost palpable in each bite of dark chocolate and crunchy walnuts. I start to wonder how many batches of love-filled brownies it took to perfect Gram’s recipe... I make a mental note to add a “G” for Gram on my Storybook Necklace. Gram could sit for hours by the fire telling stories of growing up on Long Island during The Depression. She would share the visual of my great grandmother wading in the Bay, donning a skirt and apron with large pockets. Inside the pockets was a slippery eel that she caught and 28 oysters that she harvested from The Sound – a perfect meal to nourish her family during a time when food was scarce. I think to myself, an “O” and “B” would be great additions to my necklace, too – for Oyster Bay, Long Island, the place where my Gram grew up. I served plates of fresh oysters at my birthday celebration, a tradition and a small way of honoring my ancestors.
Sensory overload is simply the excited senses, being filled up with hope, motivation and clarity. The overload helps me to visualize the new beginning of each season…right now, the rebirth. On this very spring morning, everything is coming back to life. I will say that things do come and go and all humans and beings eventually become part of the ether, part of the soil. I think this is part of why this rebirth happens, right? It’s like a reincarnation of life…a beautiful and complicated cycle. I’m so grateful for this time of year and for this precious reminder.
