What Triggers Your Deepest Memories? A Personal Reflection
I was scrolling through YouTube when I came across a video of Ethel Cain talking about her candle collection. I love it when people share their collections—of any kind—because I can sense how much meaning they give to each object. Plus, every collection carries a story. I think true collectors are people who consume with intention, and I really respect that.
I only have a few candles that I usually light in December, but even so, that video passed on Ethel’s excitement as she described what each candle represents in her life. She mentioned, for example, that gardenia-scented candles remind her of her childhood home. That really moved me, because it’s true—some scents have the power to take you straight back to the past.
As she spoke, I found myself reflecting on how each person tends to remember more vividly through a particular sense. Some remember best through touch—a pat, a caress. Others connect with the past through photographs. And then there are those of us (myself included) who remember most intensely when hearing a song—and it becomes impossible to hold back the tears.
How do you remember most deeply?
2 Comments
Nostalfan
You had already mentioned on “The Invisible Pieces in My Collage Art” that one key aspect was music, and how you get wrapped in your songs and playlists until you find the right one to finally start a piece. Now it all clicked in a different way, since your emotions are most intensely linked to music, it’s not really a mood thing — or at least not only that — but it’s your memories being brought to the present through music, it’s songs evoking the past that you will now frame into existence. A visual media capturing memories recalled with music. Those songs give your pieces an extra level of intimacy that probably only you are able to fully get. Wonderful!
Seele
Yes, it’s true that I have strong feelings toward music — it’s always been that way. It still amazes me to see that same passion in others, whether it’s for a different art form or even just a particular sense.