rem·i·nis·cent

/ˌreməˈnisənt/ adjective tending to remind one of something; evocative of a previous experience or memory

There are things that connect us to another time and place. We all have them.

I had been waiting for the perfect winter day to make green chile.

Yesterday was that day.

I took a bag of roasted green chiles out of the deep freezer. This batch happened to be hand-delivered a few months back.

The chiles are the kind that are fresh from the fields, roasted on demand in a parking lot or alongside the road, and then taken home to peel the skins off before getting neatly frozen in specific portions. It only takes one time to learn why you wear gloves and don’t touch your face during the peeling process.

I remember the first time I ate an open-faced green chile enchilada like the one I ate yesterday.

It seems like a lifetime ago, and in many ways it was.

The world was a different place then. I was a different person then. Yet dinner brought back warm memories of the past…maybe that has a little something to do with the kick a Pueblo chile can have.

Yesterday was a fascinating day, where the past transected the present.

Earlier in the day, I got an out-of-blue message from a childhood classmate. He happened to be driving through Iowa and thought he’d reach out. We grew up together, from Kindergarten through graduation, but it had been a couple of decades since we last spoke.

There was no specific reason for the gap in time, just the reality that life marches on, and in each chapter transition, people come and go from the story.

Social media has allowed many of us to stay connected in a way that wasn’t always as easy. In many ways, it has allowed us to be voyeurs watching the stories of others, often from afar.

Throughout the day, we caught up on life. The good. The bad. The memorable.

The stuffed animal he gave me in high school is still among my treasures, stored safely in the basement. It is one of the few things that has moved from state to state, house to house, chapter to chapter.

Later in the day, I caught up with another classmate. He’s been my defacto source of accountability throughout writing my dissertation. Once upon a time, he wrote one too, albeit on a topic much more complex than mine. Here’s hoping someday that he and his colleagues can find a solution to my very distinct eye problems.

There were a few other conversations with friends of the present mixed in.

The thing about moving on is that you get to shed what no longer serves you.

That’s a phrase I heard so many times yesterday when I was listening to some guilty pleasures on YouTube.

At some point, maybe I will write about intuition - but for now, I’m going to listen closely to the universe because it’s being especially chatty at the moment.

In the meantime, here are a few of the things that made me appreciate yesterday:

“Keep it up and know that people are pulling for you! [The] small town people that rode your bus!!”

“Holy shit, congrats. That is big.”

“Ok. Not that cold 🥶”

“Felt good to say Bye Felicia 👋🏻”

January 5, 2025

ETA: I was reminded what today is, and the green chile makes so much sense now.