I just got back from Disney World...........actually, that trip was in 1990, but I "went" there again recently when I heard the song "Hot Hot Hot" play while I shopped. This recent "trip" was short, but nearly real, as I stopped still, closed my eyes, and for a brief minute or two, there I was, standing in the heat at Disney World with three excited little kids, watching an afternoon parade through the streets of the Magic Kingdom. I saw my daughter wiggle, and my sons throw their hands up and sing along to the chorus while we all shouted, "Hot Hot Hot!" in the heat.
I call it "Time Traveling," for lack of a better name.......and I do it often. It is less expensive than real travel, and sometimes more enjoyable. A "little trip" can be started by music, a scent, or just being somewhere for a moment.
I can be on a warm beach at any opportunity, by stretching my arms out in front of myself when I am sitting, closing my eyes, and tilting my head upwards. I imagine the sound of waves and squawks of a lone seagull. I take "little vacations" frequently when the stress of life starts to wear on me.
If I walk into an old school building, the smell of orange peels and peanut butter takes me directly back to third grade at Fairlawn School..........walking timidly to the lunchroom.
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) " puts me in the driver's seat, with my three children singing along in the back seat, driving me crazy with the same lyrics over and over............or taking a walk in the Poland Woods with the three straggling along behind, hanging on to each other for support, hounding me with the same nagging tune and lyrics. ("Travel the world and the seven seas....") I roll my eyeballs and laugh inwardly, "being there" for these brief visits to the past. Oh, to be there again.....
Music is a huge tool for time travel . An "our song" from a long-ago love, we all know, brings nostalgia.............good or bad.
Hymns take me back to the third pew of the church where I raised my children. "For All the Saints" makes my tears flow, and I can smell hyacinths at an Easter service. "Amazing Grace" puts me in the front pew, at Philip's funeral. There are some places where I just don't travel , so I shut that one off. I can't always control the time traveling.
Smells are interesting vehicles. A whiff of pipe smoke brings my grandfather briefly into view, and the foul odor of a cigarette takes me to college bars and stuffy apartments filled with ashes.
The Rolling Stone's "Satisfaction" puts me at a college freshman "mixer," where I danced for the very first time, having always been too timid, until I knew, at that moment, that it was do or die. It was an 'Aha Moment' in my life.
A magazine ad that invites me to visit South Dakota actually takes me there. If the South Dakota tourism advertisers only knew how successful their ad is! I mentally travel through Spearfish Canyon, eat an Indian flat bread breakfast, and I haven't even turned the pages!
A photo of beautiful food served on a colorfully-set table can put me right there, inspire me to cook that meal and set that table, while at the same time taking me back to a similar setting and meal. I can almost hear the conversation and remember the comfy feeling of the padded chair.
The sight of a bag of coconut at the market this morning took me soaring back to Mom's kitchen, and hot Impossible Pie steaming on the corner counter top. I could almost taste it............so bought the coconut, came home and recreated that moment in my own kitchen!
Attached to my neck is my head, inside of which is my brain............the storehouse of the finest computer in the world. While I may type on my Toshiba and store photos in Picasa, my brain can take me back to times or places, if I let it. I can be three, learning to ride a bike, seven and learning to write in cursive, nineteen and experimenting with new friendships, or thirty-five with my children in tow.
My hope for my real-life future is to travel to faraway places, see what is yet unseen, revisit favorite places, sit on quiet beaches with good books, and love passionately.
I've already done those things, and not that I won't again, but in case I ever cannot, I know that as long as my mind is working, I will be able to be somewhere in time, given a reminder by song, scent or scenery. We are all capable of taking mini-trips and mini-vacations, mentally, if we let ourselves just go and enjoy! I may go back to Disney World again soon!
