Archive for December 2012

Design for Change: Vacation Memories

It is so hard to say good-bye to vacation and leave behind sensations in which you reveled.  Why not bring some pieces home with you to invoke the memories and call up feelings that you experienced?  My dear friend Pam has several ways in which she does this.   On her kitchen counter stands a tall vase of stones collected on a recent trip to the Greek Islands.  This stylish accent conjures up the feeling of warm sand sifting through her fingers.

Design For Change: Vacation Memories at HomeShe also collects small water colors (sometime inexpensive cards) from places she has traveled.  Framed at home in her powder room they create a charming wall of stories fondly remembered.

I am particularly jealous of her printers box filled with small trinkets from all over the world. Design for Change: Vacation Treasures on Display (Perhaps because she and our friend Linda have such a good time picking these things out.)  I keep thinking I am too late to get in on this but of course it is never too late to shore up memories.

I often think of memory as existing in layers;  usually the important and current stuff stays on the top, easily accessible.  As their urgency lessens they drift down to be replaced by other more important events.  It becomes easy for the amazingly evocative Tango performance in Buenos Aires that truly thrilled you to slide further and further out of mind.  Tangible reminders such as tiny tango shoes can pull these special memories back to the surface and allow us to delight in them once more.

 

My suggestion; bring back something real, an actual souvenir ( French for “a remembrance”)  a rock, a shell, a picture, and put it someplace where you will see it often.  When passing by give yourself a few seconds to remember, and re-experience the vacation sensation.