Childhood Memories

as i woke this morning to the sun filtering through my bedroom windows the quiet of the morning reminded me of waking to a house filled with the warm smells of cinnamon and nutmeg from my moms cinnamon crunch muffins. so while everyone was asleep i headed to the kitchen to hunt through my mom's old recipe box for the recipe. most recipes she kept locked in her head, but the few she wrote down, i was able to keep when she passed. on mornings like this when the pangs of missing her hit me heavily, i look at these recipes and find comfort in the familiarity of her handwriting and the memories of her in the kitchen, which is where she always was when she wasn't working nights as a nurse. as i started to sift through the ingredients and put the recipe together i thought of my children upstairs sleeping and my heart filled with the thoughts of them, grown up with families of their own. i can only hope that they too will be filled with the same thoughts and memories, triggered by the smells and tastes of their childhood. i have been asked several times for recipes, which i to like my mom keep so many in my head, and people laugh that they are all handwritten and not on the computer. i laugh too, and say, the computer is not in the kitchen with me my paper and pen are. the truth is, although i have started to transfer some onto the computer, the words on the computer can not begin to express the warmth and familiarity of the person sharing the recipe. so i will continue to write with pen and paper and also to transfer to the computer as time goes by. i also make a quiet resolve to write down more recipes to pass to my children, so they too may find comfort, familiarity, warmth and fond memories in my written words to one day share with those they love and cherish.