Good Wednesday afternoon blind wisdom seekers

Yippy! Ultra fast broadband is up again this week so the wisdoms can get through! Wow wee!

Yesterday I had a very powerful connection through one of my senses. I was making a fish pie for tea and in the process I peeled the potatoes for the pie’s topping. I placed the potatoes on the back element and wandered back to my office. Upon coming back into the kitchen a few minutes later, a smell struck me. What was that? I remembered it now. It was the smell of my Nan boiling potatoes for lunch in her tiny Riselaw Road kitchen. I would go and stay with her and she would cook our midday lunch and we would sit up at her oak dining table and enjoy food together. I loved my Nan. She was 73 when I was born so she had to wait a long time before I came in to her life. She taught me how to knit and crochet and I’d roll up the hallway on her blow up poof (footstall) and swing around on her swivel chair! When I think about it now, I think about how patient she was to not only have us there, but to embrace us and to love us the way she did! She was the one that said when watching me fall over one day “whatever happens to Julie, she’ll come up smiling!”

Well Nan, you’re right, I am smiling today because that potent potato smell has connected me with your memory and for that I am truly grateful.

But wait, yesterday there was more! Not only did I have the smell of boiling potatoes to connect us, I also had the iced animals. My sister found them at the supermarket on Monday night “here you are sis, here’s something for you” as she placed the box in my hand. Iced animals was something else that took me back to you Nan. You would have family parties where all my uncles and aunties got together and ate food, most importantly dessert. Part of that line up always included iced animals. I loved them then and I love them now! And as I discovered last night, so does my husband! He loved working out the little shapes and divided our portions into his favourite and mine! Crikey! “Get your mucky paws off my lion” I sshrieked! I’m ashamed to say it Nan, but we devoured the whole box but with it came a whole load of memories.

Thanks for those memories Nan and thanks to my sense of smell and taste for connecting me to you!

Here are 10 things my senses are grateful for this week:

1 the smell of the potatoes boiling in the pot. It transported me back to my Nan’s kitchen in Riselaw Road. At that moment I felt very close to her. The importance of childhood relationships.

2 the taste of the porridge I had for breakfast on this wintery morning.

3 the taste of the Cinnamon bun I had for morning tea. We called in to Spelt. They are the most glorious thing on the planet!

4 The feel of the ramekins at Briscoes as Ron and I looked for ones to make fish pie in! We found them and also my fingers landed on a non stick slice tray which, in my 49 years on this planet I have never owned. Until now! Today was the day my life was enhanced by a slice tin. Happiness!

5 the sound of the Book Thief Ron and I watched on tV last night. 3 stars.

6 the smell of the fish pie that cooked in the oven last night! In the new ramekins!

7 the sound of my Maori friend Peter speaking to me in Maori on the phone.

8 the sweet taste of the boiled egg I had for lunch the other day.

9 the sound of a speaking agency putting my fee forward to an association for consideration for an event next month. I was chosen above other speakers! Woo hoo!

10 The feel of the iced animal biscuits we ate tonight for dessert. Hippos, elephants, lions and sheeps! Wow wee! I can’t wait for the next box to land under my fingers!

I may not see but I can smell

And taste and touch and listen

And when I do this every day

I find my optimism.