Enjoying the Season Day Three

"Autumn is the season for enjoying the fullness of life -- partaking of the harvest, sharing the harvest with others, and reinvesting and saving portions of the harvest for yet another season of growth." ~ Denis Waitley

Week One: Preparing Our Homes for the Season

Day 3 Turn on your Senses - The Sounds and Scents of Fall

True enjoyment comes in moments. What is a moment?

Moment

1. A very brief period of time.

2. An exact point in time.

It gives support to the idea that it only takes a moment to change your life. Some of those moments are BIG moments. The one when you meet "the one" and later when you hear or say "I love you"; the moment you say "I do"; the moment you see a + or - on a little white stick. The moment you say goodbye to someone forever. They are all moments preceded and followed by millions of other moments that maybe aren't so monumental... but does it matter.

A life is simply made up of millions of moments. Several months ago my friend Christina put this post on her blog and it's crossed my mind several times since. You should read it. She's a real deep thinker and it was a good one on the Choreography of life, moments and decisions.

So back to my post, I wanted to talk about moments because it only takes a moment to "enjoy" something with one or more of your senses. To smell something or hear something lovely. To taste something delicious, to touch, to remember, to know, to really see. We can go through life and miss so much because we don't fully live in the present. God has prepared beauty for us to experience in a continual, never ending stream. I believe when we live in that inspired place, that we live better lives, we take better care of the planet and the people in it simply because we are more aware of and intimately connected with it/them.

Furthermore, if the majority of the moments in our day are more "enjoyable", then would not our days be better, and therefore our lives be better overall?

We have 5 basic senses and a bunch of other ones that God placed in our souls through which we perceive and experience His creation. In the next few posts we'll be highlighting those senses and how to get the most out of our moments and live more fully in them.

Autumn Scents & Smells

According to science, your nose is at its best when you can tell the difference between 4000-10,000 smells. Our sense of smell is centered in the frontal lobe of our brain and is closely connected to our memory. It's important to invigorate our brains to remember happy things, and what we smell can help do just that. Supposedly, there are seven primary odors that we categorize various smells into. They are: Camphoric (Mothballs); Musk; Floral; Minty; Etheral (Cleaning Fluid); Pungent; Putrid

Interestingly enough, most of the fall smells people remark on, are in the "pungent" category (which includes spices like cinnamon). Things that "stand out" or slightly "sting" the nose. Seems after all the fun of summer, we're ready for something a little stronger, deeper even...

Think of...

School supplies (especially a new box of Crayola crayons); Smoky campfires; the musty, earthy smell of leaves gathered on the pavement, Mulled Spices & Apple Cider, Fresh Baked Pies and Breads, The musky depth of a rich red wine, the fresh smell of pine, The cool smell of the night just after the sky darkens, The nutty buttery smell of melted cheese

Around this time of year, we don't even have to be intentional about this. Surrounding yourself with spicy smelling candles can help for sure, but all we have to do is go outside and when we smell something, take the extra seconds to really savour it... the moments to make a difference in your day.

Autumn Sounds

The second sense that we don't even have to be intentional about is our hearing. The sounds of Autumn are everywhere you go, take the moments you are handed to really 'hear" what's going on in your world.It's fascinting to me how our hearing directly effects our sense of balance. I would dare mention perhaps both literally and figuratively. It's dependant on picking up "vibrations" in the air, which is another way of being "in tune" with your environment and life. Can you pick up on the song that your Creator is surrounding you with right now?

Canadian Geese honking; the crackling and snapping of an open flame; the brakes of School Buses on the road; the rustling leaves in the trees, bells pealing; slippers on the hardwood floor; the roar of football fans in a stadium, Chile boiling on the stove...

For each of us the things that we remember are different, but the point is to live in the present. Enjoy the fullness of the times we are in right now. The point is to savour those moments with the senses and let it carry over into the rest of the moments that make up your day.

Enjoy!