I just had a smell memory. It's been a quiet Sunday afternoon and I came into the house to the smell of baking waffles. Bret decided he was hungry, so he made himself some waffles and it brought me back to when I was a little girl. I even smelled the strawberry jam on top. My older sister, brother and I would visit our father during the summer and I remember my step-mom making waffles, boy did they smell good. I would put strawberry jam on top instead of syrup and it would make a perfect morning meal. So when I walked into the kitchen I had to whip up some for myself and I even had the strawberry jam to top them off.
It's amazing how something can bring you back to a time of innocence, when time itself was slow and everything took twice as long as it does now. When you were young you would go out to play with the neighbor kids, make daisy chains, play in the hay piles and build dirt roads in the garden. When no one was looking you would sneak into the garden to find a plump ripe tomato, pick off the vine and suck the juice out, run, chase butterflies, and climb trees. Ah, the memories!
Now getting back to the waffles, the smell memory was better than the actual bite. I was a little disappointed in the waffle itself, but I loved the scent of it. I enjoyed that moment of thinking back for a little while and hoping that my kids will have those types of memories as well.
Childhood is too special a time to overload our sweet ones with the worries of the world. We need to let them play, get dirty, skin their knees and enjoy being children. In our society today we hurry things up. Just today a boy of 6 and a half told me, "in just a few years" he would be nine. Now, I don't actually know what happens when he turns nine, but he seemed to think life started then and he was excited to get there. So what happens to seven and eight, are they the "get by" years. You know, those days that don't matter because something exciting is going to happen in the future. Those days that are skimmed over because your birthday is coming in 6 weeks and you can hardly stand the wait.
Now as an adult I try to enjoy the days as they come, mostly anyway. I have a daughter getting married in Aug and my first grandson due around the same time. I get a little excited about both of those events and sometimes I want to skip all the days in-between, but what would I miss out of. Life isn't those events (although special), life is everyday, the finishing of a task well done, smelling the lilacs for the few days of bloom in spring. It's enjoying the quacking of the young duck and the eyes opening of a baby kitten, and watching the humming birds as they dive to the feeder. Life is too short to want to skip all the days in-between. God has made a world full of special things to enjoy. When He created the world He called it good. I know, we live in a fallen world, but we get glimpses of His glory as we take each day as it comes. As we look beyond the worried of the day, as we think like little children, finding joy in the simple things in life.
I hope to keep this little bit of joy of remembrance for a little while longer, thinking of my childhood. Maybe it will encourage me to keep joy in my heart every day and to spread that joy to those around me.
And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3
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