Memories come to me in different waves. Often appealing to my attachment to scents.

They come to me in the scent of my late mom’s chocolate cake that she used to bake and remind me of how happy that scent made my brother and me.

They come to me when I hold her clothes and smell them and feel so grateful that six years after her departure, they still smell exactly like her.

They come to me when I smell lemon grass and Jasmine oil that sway me back to my trip to the East for my beautiful honeymoon with my husband.

They come to me when my dear dad makes an amazing tray of Knafeh Nabulsyeh and the sweet aroma wheels me back to my family gatherings where Knafeh just had to be involved.

These days, my memories come to me when I take a whiff of Jumana’s hair and remember how I took that exact same whiff of her sweet scent when she was born and how much I cherished that very first whiff.

We all form memories in the way we would like to remember them many years from now.

Some memories will keep pulling us back into them in the sweetest way possible, and others will slowly fade.

When I think of the fondest memories I have of the people in my life, I realize that the strongest memories are those that were unpredictably created.

An impromptu outing with friends for coffee can turn into a moment we laugh about many years from now.

These memories uplift us wherever we are in life. That being said, it is foolish to believe that painful memories do not exist. Of course they do, otherwise our lives would not have this perfect balance of good and bad.

I believe our bad experiences pave a seamless road to gratitude for us.  If it were not for our rough times in life, we would not fully and wholly appreciate all the blessings we are always surrounded by but often overlook.

Many psychologists stress on how “holding on to good memories help us deal with unpleasant situations and retain a positive outlook on life”.

More than 80 years ago, an investigation was conducted in order to find out how attached we are to our positive and negative memories.

Psychologists asked a group of people to recall specific life events and the data collected showed that the sample of people stated that nearly 60% of unpleasant experiences were forgotten but only 42% of the pleasant memories had faded.

This shows how powerful our current attitudes towards life and our experiences today truly shape who we become in the future.

When we think of our children, we all feel very strongly that we would do anything to see them happy.

We focus on building the fondest of memories with them at any cost. Sometimes, the task of parenting might be so demanding and daunting. We want our kids happy, but we also want to raise them well.

We want to instill decent and pure values in them, and we want them to grow up to be successfully independent individuals who light up the lives of those around them. This task may sometimes be very challenging in today’s world.

So yes, a lot is going in in the world today but a lot was going on in the world 20, 30 and a 100 years ago and we still meet incredibly loving and compassionate people whose parents managed to build them up in a wonderfully positive way.

Although it may be very difficult sometimes to focus on the good because we all have good days and then not so good ones, it is incredibly important to focus on the blessings we have.

Many of us have seen people who, from our point of view, may not have much, but their sense of gratitude is contagious and enlightening.

This is where our outlook and attitude towards life’s adversities make a difference. Thus, the moment we become parents is the moment we also gain the new title of  “Memory Maker”.

As for me, I do not care how messy my baby’s eating space may get when she is learning to love food and explore all the new things she is seeing. I do not care if she meets specific “milestones” when she is supposed to according to society’s timeline for my baby.

I know that as she gets older, parenting will become more challenging but I also do know that her father and I will do everything in our hands to give her all the tools she needs to grow up into a healthy and happy individual.

She might not remember every mistake she will make while learning, but she will definitely remember how we react to those mistakes.

And one day, I hope she looks back at her childhood and remember all the fun times we had together. I hope she remembers the smell of my baking and sure do hope she loves to bake as well! But that is completely up to her.

I hope she remembers us singing and dancing together and I hope that she remembers a million happy things when she smells random scents throughout her day. Ultimately, I sure do hope, that these scented memories will lift her up and draw a little content smile on her beautiful face no matter where life takes her.