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When you visit your favorite restaurant can you smell the food even before walking inside? Can you feel the difference between the soft fur of a puppy and the cold wet nose? If a bright red bird swoops by, can you identify what kind of bird it is just by color? Should you pay to use your senses?

That is the premise for A Case of Sense; a new book by author Songju Ma Daemicke illustrated by Shennen Bersani. The book opens with a young boy playing outside, and greedy Fu Wang has cooked wonderful Chinese dishes with the smells wafting throughout town. He announces that the townspeople must pay for the smells and when they don’t he takes everyone to court! The judge has a clever way to deal with the case and readers might use a little logical reasoning to figure out the puzzle.

Saturday, Songju will be signing at the ISLMA conference in Tinley Park, IL from 2pm-4pm. In celebration, we have a fun little puzzle in logic and sight that might keep kids coloring for a little while!

Get out the markers or the crayons and color in the missing spaces. Remember that all the colors will be rows, columns, and squares of 9 without repeating!

Download the printable PDF version! 

Download the answers here!

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Towards the end of his lecture on ‘techniques of the body’, delivered to a meeting of the Société Française de Psychologie in 1934, the sociologist and anthropologist Marcel Mauss discussed the methods of breathing practiced by Daoist priests and Yogic mystics. Far from being instinctive, these techniques require a lengthy apprenticeship.

The post Bodies of breath, bodies of knowledge, and bodies of culture appeared first on OUPblog.

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I read this after listening the fabulous Bookrageous Podcast which read and discussed the book for their book club and then interviewed the author. It is a fascinating look at what is happening inside our minds when we read. The author, Peter Mendelsund, is a book designer for Knopf in the US but also has […]

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As Christmas draws near, and the dark cold evenings become longer, a number of people will have a foreboding about being alone, creating a sense of loneliness. Is loneliness something to anticipate with anxiety? Or even fear? Should we avoid being on our own, and seek out companionship? On the contrary, I will argue that approaching loneliness and giving it focal time can enhance your wellbeing.

Loneliness has many faces. Sociologists distinguish two types: social loneliness, missing relationships with friends and family; and emotional loneliness, the missing of an intimate relationship, like a partner. Anthropologists have also observed other types of loneliness, such as existential loneliness, the feeling of being lost in the world. In practice, social workers and health care professionals tend to view loneliness as a condition, to be countered or cured. Although there are therapies for loneliness as a condition, they seldom are sustaining in the long term. They view loneliness as an aberration that needs to be treated, and not as a transient part of life.

Being alone has its advantages, offering time for reflection on your life, including the people within it, and most poignantly, those people whom you miss. It offers time to take distance and renew oneself, to step aside from the hectic, running pace of daily life and pause, to have time to yourself, time to muse, digest and cherish more deeply the thoughts and memories that surface, and to view your life with a different perspective.

The French novelist Patrick Modiano, the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, has sketched out the beauty of being alone in many of his books. Loneliness is a recurring theme in his oeuvre, where protagonists spend more time in their thoughts and memories than in physical action. His characters wander often alone, approaching their loneliness and longing for other people they have met and with whom they have shared meaningful experiences as balanced parts of life, reflecting and offering positive and negative feelings, not as a condition to be avoided, or feared.

Modiano is often called the heir of the French novelist Marcel Proust, who wrote his magnum opus In Search of Lost Time a century ago. Although the books of Modiano and Proust are very different, they share similarities of theme and attitudes about the appreciation of involuntary memories, which offer their protagonists new insights and perspectives on the situations they are experiencing. These memories are often evoked by the passing impressions of a sound, a visual image, taste, and most of all by scents.

Of all the senses, the sense of smell is the most capable of evoking intense emotional memories. Psychological and neurological studies have shown that memories triggered by scents are more emotional and evocative than those elicited by images or sounds, although there are little differences in the level of detail or vividness of the memories.

The involuntary nature of these scent memories means that they become difficult to control; a scent may pass by you and suddenly intense childhood memories are evoked. In this situation, the best response is to be open, to be aware of your environment and not to close yourself off to the scents that are spinning about the air amid your daily wanderings. The protagonists in the books by Modiano and Proust are often alone or absentminded in a crowd or society when, by chance opportunity, they encounter their best memories.

Besides being involuntary, the scents that evoke special memories are personal and situational, and as they layer and fuse become ‘autobiographical perfumes’, as I have coined them. Everybody can have several autobiographical perfumes that evoke these memories, and for each person, they are different. For one, an autobiographical perfume may be the scent of a special variety of fresh baked cookies, while for another it may be the scents of a church interior. People share common scents as well, especially when they are of the same generation or region and they have encountered the same kind of typical smells in their childhood. Think of the smell of local food, pastry, herbs, and spices; scents attached to familiar landscape and spaces, such as farmland and forest, bars and churches; and each of these experiences enhanced, amplified, and extended by new scents indicative of the holiday season.

And so I present to you the idea of a ‘perfume for loneliness’. This is not a perfume, comprised of chemical or natural extracts, or a medicine as one might expect, against loneliness. It is not a formula that works for all, and is not available to purchase in a shop. It is a perfume for you, personally to discover and create for yourself.

Begin by exploring what kind of scents trigger childhood memories for you. Gather these scents physically, and compose your own personal autobiographical perfume. When you are alone, in a time of reflection, consciously inhale these scents. They will create space to facilitate you to approach and understand your personal feelings of loneliness better. They will evoke special memories that, just like opening a gate, can lead you to deeper reflection on your life, and a richer understanding of the people who are absent and missed. As you inhale, be comforted by this sensory experience, and be at peace with the knowledge that loneliness is not a feeling to avoid or fear.

Headline image credit: Ocean view. CC0 via Pixabay.

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Historians are tasked with recreating days past, setting vivid scenes that bring the past to the present. Mark M. Smith, author of The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege: A Sensory History of the Civil War, engages all five senses to recall the roar of canon fire at Vicksburg, the stench of rotting corpses in Gettysburg, and many more of the sights and sounds of battle. In doing so, Smith creates a multi-dimensional vision of the Civil War and captures the human experience during wartime. Here, Smith speaks to how our senses work to inform our understanding of history and why the Civil War was a singular sensory event.

Sensory overload in the Civil War

Using sensory history to understand the past

How the Civil War transformed taste

Headline image credit: The Siege of Vicksburg. Litograph by Kurz and Allison, 1888. Public domain via the Library of Congress.

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From Facebook’s purchase of Oculus VR Inc. to the latest medical developments, technology is driving new explorations of the perception, reality, and neuroscience. How do we perceive reality through the sense of touch? Alberto Gallace is a researcher in touch and multisensory integration at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, and co-author of In touch with the future: The sense of touch from cognitive neuroscience to virtual reality. We recently spoke to him about touch, personal boundaries, and being human.

Out of all the human senses, touch is the one that is most often unappreciated, and undervalued. When did you first become interested in touch research?

I was in Oxford as a visiting PhD student and working on multisensory integration, in particular on the integration between tactile and visual signals in the brain. Soon I realized that, despite the fact that is a very important sensory modality, there was not much research on touch, and there were not even a lot of instruments to study such sensory modality. I started by working more with engineers and technical workshops then with psychologists and neuroscientists, just because I needed some device to test the sense of touch in a different way as compared to what was done in the past. Touch was mainly studied with reference to haptic object recognition, mostly on visually impaired individuals or in terms of its physiological mechanisms. Many of the most relevant aspects of touch were very little, if not at all, investigated.

We use touch for walking, talking, eating, nearly everything basically. It also plays a major role on our interpersonal relationships, it affects the release of hormones and it contributes to define the boundary of our self.

To my students I often say, where our touch begins, we are. I wanted to understand more of these topics. I wanted to compare touch with other sensory modalities. In doing that I was convinced that research on touch had to get away from the fingertips or hands and extend to the whole body surface. The more I studied this sense, the more I became interested in it. For every question answered there were many more without responses. I like touch a lot because there are many things that still need to be understood about it, and I am a rather curious person, particularly when it comes to science.

What do you think has been the most important development in touch research in the past 100 years?

I am not sure if it’s the most important development, but what I certainly consider important is the recent study of certain neural fibres specialized in transmitting socially-relevant information via the sense of touch. That is, the C tactile afferents in humans, that are strongly activated by ‘caress like’ stimuli, might play an important role in many of our most pleasant social experiences. However, I should also say that my personal way to think about science is much more ‘future oriented’. That is, I believe that the most important developments in touch research are the ones that we will see in the next years. I am really looking forward to reading (or possibly writing) about them.

Why did you decide to research this topic?

Most of the previously published books on touch — there aren’t many, to be honest — were focused on a single topic. Most of them were based on research on visually-impaired individuals, and the large majority of them were authored books, a collections of chapters written by different people, sometimes with a different view. Charles [Spence, University of Oxford] and myself wanted something different, something more comprehensive, something that could help people to understand that touch is involved in many different and relevant aspects of our life. We envisioned a book where the more neuroscientific aspects of touch were addressed together with a number of more applied topics. We wanted something where people could see touch ‘at work’. We talk about the neural bases of touch, tactile perception, tactile attention, tactile memory, tactile consciousness, but also about the role of touch in technology, marketing, virtual reality, food appreciation, and sexual behaviour. Many of these topics have never been considered in a book on touch before.

What do you see as being the future of research in this field in the next decade?

I think that research in my field, pushed by technological advances, will grow rapidly in the coming years. One of the fields where I see a lot of potential is certainly related to the reproduction of tactile sensations in virtual reality environments. Virtual reality will likely become an important part of our life, maybe not in the next decade, but certainly in a not so distant future. However, if we want to create believable virtual environments we need to understand more of our sense of touch, and in particular how our brain processes tactile information, how different tactile stimulations can lead to certain emotions and behaviours, and how tactile sensations can be virtually reproduced. Following the idea that ‘where our touch begins, we are’, research will certainly invest a lot of resources in trying to better understand the neurocognitive mechanisms responsible for supporting our sense of ‘body ownership’ (the feeling that the body is our own) and how this sense can be transferred to virtual/artificial counterparts of our self. Here research on touch will certainly play a leading role.

If you weren’t doing touch research, what would you be doing?

I think I’d work as a scientist in a different field, but always as a scientist. I am too curious about how nature works to do something different. Since I was twelve I’ve always had a special interest in astronomy and astrophysics and I can easily picture myself working in that field too. Understanding the secrets of black cosmic matter or studying the mysteries of white brain matter? Not sure which would be better. What I am sure about is that I like my job a lot, and I won’t change it with anything else that is not based that much on creativity and curiosity.

Alberto Gallace is a researcher at Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, and co-author of In touch with the future: The sense of touch from cognitive neuroscience to virtual reality. His research interests include spatial representation, multisensory integration, tactile perception, tactile interfaces, body representation, virtual reality, sensory substitution systems, and neurological rehabilitation of spatial disorders.

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Image credits: (1) Via Catalana Barcelona Plaça Catalunya 37. Photo by Judesba. CC-BY-SA-3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. (2) The Sense of Touch, painting by Philipe Mercier. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

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By Cretien van Campen

Would you take a person with dementia to the beach?

This might not really be an idea you would think of. There are several possible constraints: difficulty with travel, for example, being one. And what if, having succeeded in getting the dementia sufferer there and back, the next day you asked if they enjoyed their day out and he or she just stared at you with a confused gaze as if to ask, ‘what are you talking about?’

If you think it makes little sense to take persons with dementia to the beach, it will surprise you that a nursing home in Amsterdam has built a Beach room. In this room, residents can enjoy the feeling of sitting in the sun with their bare feet in the sand. The room is designed to improve the well-being of these residents. The garden room at the centre of the home has recently been converted into a true ‘beach room’, complete with sand and a ‘sun’ which can be adjusted in intensity and heat output. A summer breeze blows occasionally and the sounds of waves and seagulls can be heard. The décor on the walls is several metres high, giving those in the room the impression that they are looking out over the sea. There are five or six chairs in the room where the older residents can sit. There are also areas of wooden decking on which wheelchairs can be parked. The designers have even managed to replicate the impression of sea air.

Visits to the beach room appear to have calming and inspiring effects on residents of the nursing home. One male resident used to go to the beach often in the past and now, after initially protesting when his daughter collected him from his bedroom, feels calm and content in the beach room. His dementia hinders us from asking him whether he remembers anything from the past, but there does appear to be a moment of recognition of a familiar setting when he is in there.

Evidence is building through studies into the sensorial aspects of memorizing and reminiscing by frail older persons in nursing and residential homes. Several experimental studies have noted the positive effects of sense memories on the subjective well-being of frail older persons. For instance, one study showed that participants of a life review course including sensory materials had significantly fewer depressive complaints and felt more in control of their lives than the control group who had watched a film.

The Beach Room is an example of a multisensory room that emanates from a specific sensorial approach to dementia. The ‘Snoezelen’ approach was initiated in the Netherlands in the late 1970s. The word ‘Snoezelen’ is a combination of two Dutch words: ‘doezelen’ (to doze) and ‘snuffelen’ (to sniff ). Snoezelen takes place in a specially equipped room where the nature, quantity, arrangement, and intensity of stimulation by touch, smells, sounds and light are controlled. The aim of these multisensory interventions is to find a balance between relaxation and activity in a safe environment. Snoezelen has become very popular in nursing homes: around 75% of homes in the Netherlands, for example, have a room set aside for snoezelen activities.

On request by health care institutions, artists have taken up the challenge to design multisensory rooms or redesign the multisensory space of wards (e.g. distinguished by smells) and procedures (cooking and eating together instead of individual microwave dinners). Besides a few scientific evaluations, most evidence is actually acquired from collaborations of artists and health professionals at the moment. The senses are often a better way of communicating with people affected by deep dementia. Like the way that novelist Marcel Proust opened the joys of his childhood memories with the flavour of a Madeleine cake dipped in linden-blossom tea, these artistic health projects open windows to a variety of ways of using sensorial materials to reach unreachable people.

So, would you take a person with dementia to the beach? Yes, take them to the beach! It can evoke Proust effects and enhance their joy and well-being. Although, we still do not know what the Proust effect does inside the minds of people with dementia, we can oftentimes observe the result as an enhanced state of calmness with perhaps a little smile on their face. People with dementia who have lost so much of their quality of life can still experience moments of joy and serenity through their sense memories.

Cretien van Campen is a Dutch author, scientific researcher and lecturer in social science and fine arts. He is the founder of Synesthetics Netherlands and is affiliated with the Netherlands Institute for Social Research and Windesheim University of Applied Sciences. He is best known for his work on synesthesia in art, including historical reviews of how artists have used synesthetic perceptions to produce art, and studies of perceived quality of life, in particular of how older people with health problems perceive their living conditions in the context of health and social care services. He is the author of The Proust Effect: The Senses as Doorways to Lost Memories.

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Image credits: Multisensory ‘Beach room’ in the Vreugdehof care centre, Amsterdam. Photo: Cor Mantel, with permission from Vreugdehof.

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What Goes On in My Head? by Robert Winston is a tremendously entertaining children’s book about neuroscience and psychology and is the final book shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize.

Read this book and you’ll find answers to questions such as “Are brains actually necessary?”, “Why do we rub sore bits of our body better?”, “What is more dangerous – sleep deprivation or food deprivation?” and “Is it always better to concentrate when you’ve got to make an important decision?”.

You’ll also learn about the chicken called Mike who lived for 18 months after having his head amputated, why it’s better to star gaze using your peripheral vision and why smells can powerfully evoke past memories.

If that’s not enough, whilst reading this book it will seem like you have your own magician in the room; What Goes On in My Head? is packed with activities that explore different aspects of brain behaviour and many of them had us gasping with amazement or trying them again because the illusion or effect was so powerful. For example you can learn how to see inside your own eyes, how to make someone’s arm spontaneously levitate (the myth of telekinesis is debunked, by the way), and why it’s so difficult to draw even a simple image when you look in a mirror.

What Goes On in My Head? is a fascinating, exciting read, packed with curious facts. And as you’d expect with a Dorling Kindersley book, it’s a lovingly produced physical object, rich in images.

If I were to find fault with this beautifully produced book it would the use of Robert Winston as the “celebrity” author. Yes, he’s a household name (at least here in the UK), but he’s not a neuroscientist nor a psychologist (human fertility is is area of expertise). It seems a shame that if you’re going to use a scientist presumably with the idea of giving weight to the content of a book, why not use a scientist who is an expert in the field. Of course the book was written in consultation with a neuroscientist, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, and this leaves me wondering what Robert Winston actually wrote for the book. Additionally, Robert Winston was used as a figure head to promote the sale of a health supplement, the adverts for which were subsequently banned for breaching the ASA guidelines on “substantiation and truthfulness”, so for me personally, the use of his name to add “credibility” to this book backfires a little.

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Sight is overrated. As writers we often have a "movie" playing in our head of what our novel looks like. So we simply describe it: what the people, places and things look like. Although that does great when we're swiftly moving through a first draft, if we simply leave it at that we're cheating our readers and cheating ourselves.

Because we can do better.

We all learned in our earliest school days that there are five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. Too often as writers we rely, almost solely, on sight in our writing. It's time to delve into the other senses. They offer ways to tell readers more without resorting to descriptive cliches.

Smell

According to scientists, we attach an emotion to each scent we identify. As writers we can use "negative" and "positive" scents to reinforce the mood we're trying to create in a scene.

A musty dank smell teased Betty awake in the still dark room.

The fresh smell of sweet peas teased Betty awake in the still dark room.

Betty's waking up in two very different rooms, isn't she? And all because of an odor.

Hearing

What our characters see is often controlled by another character, but we can sneak in information they weren't meant to learn with hearing. Information perfect for someone tracking down a murderer or a foreshadowing of a future event.

As they sipped coffee from fine china in the sitting room, George heard muffled shouts coming from below.

As they sipped coffee from fine china in the sitting room, George could hear the sweet murmur of a lullaby just outside the French doors.

Each sound creates a different question for George. Who is shouting and why? Who in the family has the baby no one has mentioned?

Touch

The sense of touch often gives the reader information they could have just as easily gotten from sight, but isn't it nice to have a bit of variety in how we discover information?

Although his navy suit mirrored the uniform of every one else at the firm, he offered a brown calloused hand for Edward to shake.

Although his navy suit mirrored the uniform of every one else at the firm, when Edward shook his hand it felt like a used Brillo pad in his hand, scratching at his palm.

Using touch can turn a blah, predictable description into something more memorable.

Taste

Taste is a bit tougher to incorporate into your descriptive bag of tricks. How often can your sense of taste tell you something that your eyes can't? But the different tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter can be used to reinforce the mood of a scene.

As the room fell silent after her last remark, Susan sipped from her glass enjoying the sweet refreshment of the fruity punch.

As the room fell silent after her last remark, Susan sipped from her glass grimacing at the burn of the whiskey as it tumbled down her throat.

Did Susan enjoy the snarky remark that silenced the crowd or does she wish it had been left unsaid? Taste can give us a subtle hint.

Next time you're editing a draft use different colored highlighters to determine how much you use each sense. Chances are you're neglecting several and turning to that old favorite: sight. It's time to close your eyes and explore the world using your other senses.

Often it helps to literally close your eyes. How can we introduce hearing, smell, touch and taste to our readers if we aren't fully aware of them ourselves? Try sitting in your favorite spot fo

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We've been told to use all our senses in our writing, but what about while we're writing? Many writers use tools for inspiration. Take a look at the five senses below and see what you already use, and what you might consider trying in the future.

1. Sight. I do searches for just the right face for each of my major characters and make a power point presentation for the manuscript. It can make them feel more real. The same can be done for settings, either with pictures or maps.
2. Sound. I have playlists for each manuscript I write. Songs that either make me think of the story or a particular character. Some of my playlists are long, and some have only a couple of songs. See the photo credit above for another great blog on this.
3. Touch. We write for long periods of time (when we have our way), so it's important to be comfortable. Make sure you have a good area to work in with a comfortable and supportive seat, the keyboard at the right height and the room at the right temperature. Sometimes the tactile change of switching to longhand in a notebook or going outside to sit in the breeze can make the difference when you're stuck in a rut.
4. Taste. When I settle in to write in the morning, I have to have a nice cup of coffee with me. Sometimes I get so pulled into the manuscript that I forget I have it next to me and have to reheat it. But that's okay because there's something about having it there to sip on. If I'm having rough times, I go to my good friend chocolate for help. :D And in the evening on occasion I love to sit with a nice glass of red wine. 
5. Smell. My blogging buddy Meredith did a great post the other day on this. Check it out! She points out that certain scents inspire memories and feelings. 

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The senses are a vital source of knowledge about the objects and events in the world, as well as for insights into our private sensations and feelings. Below is an excerpt from Art and the Senses, edited by Francesca Bacci and David Melcher, in which Charles Spence, Maya U. Shankar, and Heston Blumenthal look at the ways in which environmental sounds can affect the perceived flavour of food.

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Very punny, no? :D

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16. Let's Write a Story Together!

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By: Jan Mader, on 7/6/2009
Blog: Jan Mader Ignite to Write (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  creativity, senses, creative genuises, aspiring writers, creative flow, write a story, Add a tag

You guys are so good, I think it's time we combine our creativity. I'm going to start a story. What I'd like you to do is to add to the story. Just a sentence will do the trick. In order to do this, you're going to have to read the first sentence here on the post and then read the comments as they come in...I'm excited already!

Are you ready? Here's the beginning of our story:

We were sitting around the bonfire last night when the most amazing thing happened.......


You take it from here! This story belongs to US. It's ours to play with. It's ours to give it colorful characters and delightful twists and turns.

I can't wait to see where our story goes. Since I started it, I think it's only fair that I end it on Thursday. So until then, let's create our very own masterpiece. Feel free to come back and add more to the story as you see how it develops! In fact, I think that would be a great idea.

Please share this activity with your blogging friends. They more people we have, the more interesting our story will be! Kids are always welcome here.

41 Comments on Let's Write a Story Together!, last added: 7/12/2009

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Ern said, on 7/6/2009 8:41:00 AM

We were sitting around the bonfire last night when the most amazing thing happened.......

I felt something slimy on my leg, screemed and fell out of my chair

Jan Mader said, on 7/6/2009 8:51:00 AM

the minute I hit the ground I forgot all about the slimy thing on my leg because

DJan said, on 7/6/2009 9:11:00 AM

we all saw it at the same time: a bright light in the sky, and it was coming our way!

Sandy said, on 7/6/2009 10:26:00 AM

We were sitting around the bonfire last night when the most amazing thing happened.......

I felt something slimy on my leg, screemed and fell out of my chair

the minute I hit the ground I forgot all about the slimy thing on my leg because

we all saw it at the same time: a bright light in the sky, and it was coming our way!

The light was flashing, and getting brighter as it neared us; then...a voice

Could I suggest everyone cut and paste the previous comments like this, then add their own and that way it's easier to read as it gets longer. Space between each comment.

Jan Mader said, on 7/6/2009 1:00:00 PM

I think that takes away from the quickness. Just scroll down. We don't want to take away from the spontinatiy.

So, start at the top. Scroll down. Add one sentence or two. Don't copy and paste. It's a nice idea but would take WAY too long.

With that being said, the last sentence was

THE LIGHT WAS FLASHING AND GETTING BRIGHTER AS IT NEARED US; THEN A VOICE.....

Anonymous said, on 7/6/2009 4:31:00 PM

The light was flashing and getting brighter as it neared us; then...a voice

was the voice human, was it speaking a foreign tongue? I tried to hear, but was afraid to hear

Sweet Blessings said, on 7/6/2009 5:08:00 PM

"Earth to Grace, Earth to Grace, are you alright?" I faintly heard my friend Jim's voice. "I've been trying to pass you a marshmallow and it's like you were in La-La land or something."

Jan Mader said, on 7/6/2009 5:51:00 PM

Grace brushed her mop of soft curly hair away from her tired eyes. She looked at Jim.....

2cats said, on 7/6/2009 7:13:00 PM

"Oh Jim, thanks.", Grace replied. "Where were you?" "I don't know Jim. I think I must have stepped away for a second."

AL said, on 7/6/2009 7:24:00 PM

and was bewildered to see something behind Jim! She was staring blankly at the thing when Jim suddenly. . .

Jenni said, on 7/6/2009 7:34:00 PM

leaps away from the fire, frantically brushing the sparks off his jeans. Grinning sheepishly, "sorry, didn't mean to scare you, thought I was on fire for a second." Jim notices that Grace isn't listening to him at all, but staring in a sort of horrified, fascination at....

Sandy said, on 7/6/2009 8:55:00 PM

The thorney brushes in the distance, they were moving--or so it seemed. No, not possible, bushes don't move..........ouch

Tweedles -- that's me... said, on 7/6/2009 11:09:00 PM

I was suddenly finding it hard to concentrate on the thorny bush, because I was being overwhelmed by a familiar fragrance. I could not get my mind off the smell.

Jan Mader said, on 7/6/2009 11:47:00 PM

I was transported back to my childhood. Back to a time when I was five or six. The light that had been gone was back now. I felt the hairs on my arm stand up as the thorny bush became illuminated and the smell of my grandmother's perfume drew me closer and closer. I heard Jim's pleading voice say,.....

AL said, on 7/7/2009 3:33:00 AM

I am hungry

chicamom85 said, on 7/7/2009 3:44:00 AM

and I feel a strange and yet familiar feeling that I have seen this before. The smells, the sounds are so

Barbara's Spot on the Blog said, on 7/7/2009 10:28:00 AM

familiar that the hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my skin prickled.

2cats said, on 7/7/2009 6:36:00 PM

"You know what that smell is, Jim? It's bread in, it is chocolate chip cookies, and it's all the things your mom made when yu were young.", said Grace. "You're right Grace, thats why everything was so familiar. I wonder what it means?", Jim replied.

Tweedles -- that's me... said, on 7/7/2009 9:11:00 PM

Well, if your asking for my opinion,I am thinking that it means that our memories are never more than a blink, or a sniff away. The memories live in our heart, as they should. It's just a gentle touch on the shoulder saying" remember me".

chicamom85 said, on 7/7/2009 10:44:00 PM

That is a nice explanation Grace but how do you explain that over there?? I turned and felt my knees getting weak and my body shaking. No its...

Tweedles -- that's me... said, on 7/7/2009 10:59:00 PM

too much of a coincidence, that we are getting this out of body feeling. I think I see something landing over there in meadow.

Jan Mader said, on 7/8/2009 12:15:00 AM

Grace looked. At first she thought it was a space ship. Then she realized it was her grandmothers old station wagon. "Station wagons don't fly or land," Grace said outloud.

Jim just shivered. He felt like he was in the middle of a dream but he couldn't tell if it was going to be a sweet dream or a nightmare.

"Come with me," beckoned Grace's grandmother.

"Where are you taking us?" Grace asked. Grace didn't feel frightened anymore. A cozy feeling came over her. She felt safe like when she was a little girl sitting in her grandmother's lap.

Grace's grandmother spoke in a soft tone, "You'll be happy, I'm taking you .......

Sandy said, on 7/8/2009 7:34:00 AM

Grace wanted to go with her Grandmother, but the instint she took one step towards her, she was pulled back; the warm feeling was gone. The voice, speaking that strange tongue; was she the only one hearing it?

Jan Mader said, on 7/8/2009 9:54:00 AM

Her mind was playing tricks on her. The warm cozy feeling returned. Her grandmother's voice repeated, "You'll be happy, I'm taking you......

Anonymous said, on 7/8/2009 10:53:00 AM

back to your past.

Suddenly, Jim wanted to be a part of this amazing adventure. He felt a connection.

Before another thought could cross Jim's mind, he and Grace were.......

Joan said, on 7/8/2009 12:48:00 PM

pulled toward the station wagon like iron fillaments to a magnet. The back door of the wagon swung open. Grace and Jim found themselves clamboring inside with no apparent effort or intention. The door closed with a gentle woosh. Grandmother said, "There you go. Don't worry. We're going on a little ride." The station wagon started vibrating and . . .

chicamom85 said, on 7/8/2009 6:22:00 PM

was surrounded by a thick fog. I think we were moving but I couldn't say for sure. Maybe I am just feeling light headed. Oh Grandma what is that?

DJan said, on 7/8/2009 6:44:00 PM

Grace smelled a smell that could only be... gingerbread! Wonderful comforting gingerbread. She smiled at Jim and they hugged each other. What was happening? Were they flying? It sure felt like it. The fog didn't let them see much out of the station wagon's windows. The smell became stronger and...

Tweedles -- that's me... said, on 7/8/2009 7:52:00 PM

all of a sudden we noticed there were some scratching noises coming from of a box, that was sitting on the seat to Grandma. I felt like putting my hand on the door handle and getting out, when the top of the box started to open!

Sandy said, on 7/8/2009 8:18:00 PM

First I saw the the eyes, yellow eyes with no bottom and I knew........I knew we had to get out.

The voices some soft and welcoming; others warning us were fighting each other. The warning voice were scarey..they were trying to scare us away. But, we hadn't listened soon enough

Jan Mader said, on 7/8/2009 9:46:00 PM

or long enough to realize that the voices belonged to something that was near and dear to my heart. Don't worry, Grace. Those aren't voices that you're hearing. It's just the purring of a contented mother cat and her seven kittens.

"Did you have cats where you were little," Jim asked as he ran his hand back through his hair.

"No," said Grace. "I always wanted a cat or dog, but I never ever had one."

"You do now," said Grace's grandmother. "They were left her for you as a gift from...."

chicamom85 said, on 7/9/2009 12:44:00 AM

"Uncle Jim, he always felt bad that you never had a pet. He knew how much you wanted one, but because of your dear Mothers allergies it wasn't possible". Oh dear but Grandma, Uncle Jim didn't even....

Sandy said, on 7/9/2009 6:54:00 AM

checking back in as I'm making my rounds this am; can't think...Uncle Jim nothing's coming, must need more caffeine. Today's Thursday, I'll pop back in later to see how this progresses

It's been fun, Jan
Sandy

Jan Mader said, on 7/9/2009 7:18:00 AM

bother to speak to me when he came for Thanksgiving dinner. Why is he giving me somethin now?

Grandma smiled. "It's never too late to.....

Amber said, on 7/9/2009 3:38:00 PM

spend a little time with your dear ones. Because of what happened, it is understandable that your uncle Jim was preoccupied at that Thanksgiving. But he has always loved you. You children need to know that. In fact, Jim has something to tell you. Look! Can you see him now over..."

chicamom85 said, on 7/9/2009 5:37:00 PM

there in that mist, doesn't he look fine in his fancy clothes. Aunt Marge is right by his side just like always, those 2 never could be seperated. Oh dear why does Marge look so...

Tweedles -- that's me... said, on 7/9/2009 7:36:00 PM

startled? She did not look that way a minute ago.
Uncle Jim has something in his hands. It's all wrapped up in a white handkercheif.

Tweedles -- that's me... said, on 7/9/2009 9:38:00 PM

With shaky hands Uncle Jim unfolded the handkercheif and handed it to Marge. Tears welled up in Marges eyes as arthritic fingers
cradled the handkerchief and then she knew

chicamom85 said, on 7/9/2009 9:43:00 PM

"the reason that we were all drawn here tonight". Grace strained to see what was in the handerkerchief that Aunt Marge was looking at with tears running down her cheeks. Oh no it can't be...

Tweedles -- that's me... said, on 7/9/2009 10:39:00 PM

,,,,,it just can't be. the ring,,, is that the one that I had my eyes on for so many years? The one you promised to me?

chicamom85 said, on 7/9/2009 11:01:00 PM

"Oh dear I am getting light headed, what is happening to me?" Jim wait don't....

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17. Use Your Senses for This Memorial Week

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By: Jan Mader, on 5/24/2009
Blog: Jan Mader Ignite to Write (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Writing Exercise, senses, aspiring writers, kids, writers, parents, teachers, Add a tag

Since we just celebrated the Memorial Day Weekend, I thought it would be a good opportunity to remember someone who was or is special to us. A great way to do this is by using our senses to paint a lovely memory.

The thing I remember most about my Grandma Jones is that she always smelled like roses. I could never decide if it was because of the beautiful rose garden that took up a major portion of her backyard or if it was a fragrance that she actually put on every morning. In any case, my grandma smelled like a rose. I loved to curl up beside her in the big comfy chair in the living room and sip on green tea. Yep, my grandma had me drinking green tea long before it was fashionable!

Now it's your turn to write.

Writers: You can write about someone living or long gone. It's up to you. Just finish this sentence:

The thing I remember most about_______ is or was ______________________

Teachers and Parents: This is a great opportunity to talk about lots of different people, places, or things with your kids. Encourage them to remember by using any of their senses. Ask questions like: What did Fluffy's fur remind you of? or What does Aunt Em's house smell like?
You join in because without your input, any writing exercise becomes less important. Your joy and excitement make kids want to talk....and write!

6 Comments on Use Your Senses for This Memorial Week, last added: 6/4/2009

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Lorielle said, on 5/24/2009 12:37:00 PM

This is an awesome exercise! I think I would like to give it a try. Very nice!

Latte Lady said, on 5/24/2009 1:52:00 PM

Oooooh, I like this one. I'm going to have to fill in the blanks later because I need a nap before evening church!

PS
Thank you for what you said on my blog. Yes, you may.

Jan, you are so sweet. I say that to my husband every time I read your stuff!

Janet
www.homeward4.blogspot.com
We're on our way home...

Suzanne said, on 5/25/2009 11:12:00 AM

I had a Grandma Jones who smelt of roses. Your passage really took me back.

:-)

Latte Lady said, on 5/25/2009 10:42:00 PM

The thing I remember most about my Aunt Bessie was her curly hair and stinky parfume! She really was a sweet, Christian lady. Oh yah, and I remember her cute little "Miss Piggy" feet! I'll never forget the way that they looked stuffed into her high heels.

Hope your day was a blessing!

Sandy said, on 5/26/2009 9:15:00 AM

My grandmother didn't smell like roses, though she had a very nice rose garden, I can't remember her smelling of anything in particular.

The thing I remember most about my grandmother was she never wore slacks, and always had her hose twisted like anklets if she was being casual or if she was not...because a lady never had totally bare legs.

Sandy

Anonymous said, on 5/28/2009 10:41:00 AM

Cool memories

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18. The Writers Strike Back: MUTE POINTS

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By: Pamela Ross, on 12/8/2007
Blog: Born to Write (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  writers' strike, woody allen, Add a tag

From http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1321273390/bctid1334407164




Okay, Woody, I so want to love you again despite your earthly faults (and despite sitting at the table next to yours at the lovely restaurant in the city and watching you let Soon Yi do all the talking while you did all the eating and watching you ignore your table mates-- and, ahem, me as I sang a funny song I wrote for my parents' anniversary and calculated these thoughts as I performed: "Me. Woody. Me being Hilarious. This Could Be my Big Break. Me. Woody's New Muse.") ;>

This clip, a raw glimpse at what happens in a world without writers, made me laugh. Sardonically.

I suppose that's the point.

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