Anything and everything can be a minefield of emotions.  Going to the grocery store opens me up to all sorts of sudden and painful memories.  Today in the produce department were fresh apricots.  Decades ago we camped at a state park in Utah among an old appricot orchard.  The appricots were ripe and free for the picking.  We ate many of them.  I associate the ripe smell of an appricot to the warm nights under the Utah stars. 

For a second, upon seeing and smelling those apricots, I felt a stab of pain.  Then there was a slow smile that chased away the sad thoughts as I remembered the four of us kids climbing up the canyon with Dad and Mom, chasing each other up the path so eager to see what was at the top.  Looking out over those appricot orchards and campers, across the red mountain face to other mountains on a cloudless afternoon.  Gorging ourselves on appricots while sitting around the campfire at night.  Falling asleep exhausted.  Waking up so exicited to spend another day “out west.”

 These are good memories. I can choose to spend time dwelling on the pain.  Or I can choose to remember the fun.  Appricots, sunshine, campfires, moonlight, stars shining so bright we could touch them from the tops of the mountains we explored.  Those were special times.  That’s a lot of memory to be attached to an appricot.  Makes you smile doesn’t it!