Two people asked me today if it was raining here after I said I’d put beans on. It tickled me. I’m not sure if this happens anywhere else in the world, but when the rain comes in the beans go on. The stove that is. My grandmother-in-law used to take it a step further and clean the house. Stories my mother-in-law loves to regale of when she was a child and how the house would smell of beans and bleach when it rained. The smell of beans on rainy days is akin to stews on Sunday afternoons after church. They just go hand in hand in the south.
Aromatherapy for me to smell the beans while we’re trapped in the house watching the rain drip from the eaves. I realize we constantly move forward in a direction we sometimes don’t know, but always at break-neck speed. But so often I yearn for more simple times. For me, it was the 90s. My husband and I routinely talk of our childhood and what we remember fondly. The smells, the experiences, neighborhood friends, the outside play. Now I know what the generations before us meant when they remembered time gone. If it weren’t so tragic I’d laugh how I sound so old. We live in a day and age now that we’re never truly uncomfortable. If we’re too hot, we turn on the A/C. Too cold, the heat. Headache, take some medicine that’s at the tip of your fingers. Bored, turn to technology.
I try to never preach because 9 times out of 10 I’m with you. Which is why I can speak so familiarly with it. I’ve always referenced C.S. Lewis’, The Screwtape Letters (1942) and how the main way for the devil to mislead us is by distraction. Well now we live in a world FULL of distractions. We aren’t bored…ever. In fact, I struggle often with sitting in silence. I keep the tv on for noise and company, the radio is always on in the car, and at bedtime the tv is on again and my phone in my hand. It is work to sit still and think. Some of you may not have this issue, but I do constantly. However, I do always go through times like this where I loathe my phone, social media, and the tv. I guilt myself for not spending enough time advancing my mind or learning something new. At the end of almost every day my Superego is in full force telling me of ALL I didn’t get done. While my Ego chimes in quickly, “We’ll get it done tomorrow.” And my now silent Id is sure that tomorrow will be just like today. The counselor in me can’t help analyzing even myself. See here if you need a refresher on Freud and what the Id, Ego, and Superego are.
As always, I digress. Back to the beans. I’m challenging myself to sit in the quiet a little more often, to slow down and sit outside while it rains (without my phone), and to read a little bit more. Go to the store and buy some beans. Throw them in a crockpot and finish with some cornbread. Or heck, whatever makes you happy and reminds you of any time that you’d give anything to go back to. I know you have them. We all do. I hope my children hold the same memories when they grow up, that they’ll put the beans on when the rain comes in and that you will too.
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