Friday, September 18, 2009

Sweet, Sweet Memories

Whenever I am sitting at my desk in the shop and on the phone or doing paper work that taxes my strength, imagination, or patience, I open the top drawer and pull out this little bar of soap. I inhale and float away. Stress seems to diminish and I feel immediately better.
I brought this little bar home with me from a sales show that I did at least 20 years ago.
It comes from the Fairmont Hotel in New Orleans. The Audio Show was there and and to make life simpler, we stayed at the hotel. The time of the show was a very difficult time for me. I had challenged myself to do this show and I was about to go through a divorce. Very complex times.
However, it was the very best time that I ever had at a sales show. Then, we were the only women at this show. But after the session was over, we were free to wander around. The hotel was in the French Quarter. And it was wonderful. We ate wonderful food and heard wonderful Traditional Jazz at the Preservation Hall.
We went on a shoe string budget but what those dollars bought, were worth everything.
The trip filled me with hope for the future and that hope sustained me through all I had to go through.
Now, when I need to pass through the portals today's world and re-capture a time when I felt relaxed and positive, I open my drawer and deeply breathe in the fragrance of this little, tiny bar.

2 comments:

Phyllis said...

Isn't just amazing how one small and useful item can generate so many memories 20 years later. And I would guess that you saw New Orleans during the best of times, many of those now vanished. How the olfactory senses can transport us to other realms!

patrice said...

I loved visiting N.Orleans after you took that trip. You were so jazzed up and I wanted to have the same feeling.
Sometimes when I'm stressed or worried I make myself think about my birds and all their antics out in the aviary, and it relaxes me.