• this world is not my home

I was walking down the street recently and smelled something. I couldn't quite place it, but my mind immediately went back to another time and place. Suddenly I was walking into a Mexican restaurant, preparing to eat a wonderful meal of cheese and onion enchiladas, rice and refried beans. Then, a car passed and honked its horn and disturbed my dream, forcing me back to reality and keeping me safe.

One time I was on my way to buy something from the local store (henut, sp?) when I had a flashback to when I was a child and I would walk with my mom and brother to the local gas station to buy gummy bears (only a few at a time.)  We arrived at the henut and they had gummy sharks.  Almost instinctively I reached for the sharks, bit in to one and relived my childhood.  Good times!

Seeing my mother talking to my grandparents over the phone. I spent a large amount of time with them when I was little...now, we've grown a bit estranged. We hardly ever talk, and when we do, it's forced. My grandmother is supposed to die sometime soon (probably this year), which makes it harder. I have to force myself to talk to them more often, but because they only knew me as a child, before I moved to the U.S., we often are disconnected with nothing to talk about. I've changed a lot, and I feel like they have too -- so anything related to them usually conjures up pretty powerful memories of the past.