Vibrant Days – July 2016

I will remember many things about this summer but if someone were to ask for a highlight I would say: listening to the On Being podcasts with Krista Tippett. In an imaginary world it would seem this podcast was created for those of us with sensory processing sensitivity. On their website they claim to “explore what it means to be human and how do we want to live. We explore these questions in their richness and complexity in 21st-century lives and endeavors. We pursue wisdom and moral imaginations as much as knowledge; we esteem nuance and poetry as much as fact.” What a profound (and how we love profound) gift to be challenged to think differently, be inspired, moved, enlightened and met. I have enclosed 3 different episodes to give you a sample that include a physicist, immunologist, and a musician. Dive right in and let me know what you think. Oh and I’ll let you know when I actually meet Krista.

				Frank Wilczek — Why Is the World So Beautiful? Nobel physicist Frank Wilczek sees beauty as a compass for truth, discovery, and meaning. He’s the unusual scientist willing to analogize his discoveries about the …
				View on www.onbeing.org	Preview by Yahoo

				Esther Sternberg — The Science of Healing Places is research director at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. She was formerly at the National Institutes of Health.
				View on www.onbeing.org	Preview by Yahoo

	Craig Minowa — Music and The Ritual of Performance Cloud Cult is hard to categorize, musically and lyrically. Less in question is the profound, life-giving force of their music. Live from our studios on Loring Park,…
	View on www.onbeing.org	Preview by Yahoo

Watch

My Nose, the Superpower

If I were a super hero…. My superpower would be my nose!

I love the smell of fresh cut lumber.

To me that is THE BEST! I wish you could bottle THAT and sell the smell.

However… being in an elevator with a woman with too much perfume, nauseating. Did you know that some women’s perfume actually smells like mold?! Or that some women wear men’s cologne?! Let’s discuss body odors. Yuck! How can you not notice you smell like an onion (body odor)?

The smell of old sweat, sickening. Yes. OLD sweat, did you know it changes as it stays on the skin? It intensifies and strengthens to a very distinct OLD (aged) sweat odor. It goes on and on.

The smell of meat on a grill. To me, it’s not just meat on the grill. I recognize BBQ boneless skinless chicken breast cooked on a gas grill. Each meat smells distinctly different. And then the method of cooking: fried, grilled, gas or charcoal. And then with or without a bone. My nose detects all the differences: boneless, skinless, chicken, steak, beef.  Seasoned with salt? Pepper? Garlic?  I could go on forever.

Some days you walk outside and smell toast in the toaster. Not your own toast, the neighbor’s!

People think “why would it be a burden to smell so intensely?” I say “it’s impossible for me to get a good night’s sleep with a window open.”  I can tell when a farmer has plowed his field.  I can smell the fresh dirt. When the neighbor is sneaking outside to have a cigarette or someone has fertilized their yard, my superpower informs me. It never ends.

Shonedra Steele