Senses and Favorability

Are you red or blue? What Winnie the Pooh character do you most identify with…and if you were a tree, what kind would you be and why? Puh-lease! No, those quizzes are fun (I’m most like Pooh, btw and a very nice shade of green) but I took a personality test once that changed my life and my marriage too. (my husband is, it turns out, almost my exact opposite!) It’s the Keirsey Temperament Sorter
…..sometimes called the Myers Briggs test….and it’s used by psychologists and counselors of all kinds to help people understand how they are wired and to work with it and what areas to work on most.

My four letters are ESFP, which in part means I am a very tactile person. I experience life and explore my world mainly through my senses. Yesterday I was reading a magazine article on smells and how they evoke memories and I started thinking about how my senses affect me....so I started listing my favorite things from each sense and it was pretty cool. So here are some of my favorite things.....

The smells of sandalwood oil, pine candles, freshly bathed little 7 year old's head, a sweet space behind the ear of our puppy. Savory and sweet, comforting smells of foods cooking.....that moment when it's about to rain, but hasn't begun yet, burying my nose into a rose or a carnation, lemon fresh Joy, freshly cut grass, the scent of peeled oranges alongside coffee brewing (from my childhood), pine tree forests and citrus blossoms. And my husband will be happy about this one, fresh cut wood for the woodstove.

The sounds of my family, children and husband...laughing, singing, playing piano and guitars. Our puppy Winnie, trying to howl at the train several times a day, my dog Millie trying to talk and cry at us to tell us something.....swiftly flowing creeks, aspens quaking, wind chimes (gentle ones). I love music....good music, real music, no synthesized rhythms and mindless beats from a computer. Whether it's classical or rock and roll......just make it authentic and harmonic with real instruments playing.

Sights I love.....our puppy: pouncing, sitting on our other dogs so her bottom won't be cold, playing, seeing her watch television… lol. Tidy rooms, light yellow and cobalt blue together in my kitchen, patterns, textures. Contagious smiles, someone's hair lilting in a breeze, Fall leaves and Christmas lights. Flowers in a garden or alongside the road, designs in nature....like the star inside an apple, the man in the moon, snowflakes and wood grains….. a butterfly, a ladybug, fuzzy bumble bees and hummingbird moths.....amazing and cute. I also love photography and seeing other people’s photographs….like seeing through their eyes.

Touchie things I love….I touch about everything I pass by in stores and houses…especially soft textures. I love to be dressed in comfortable cotton, sleep on cotton sheets, sit on corduroy furniture…..I love warm blankets, cool breezes, hot showers, hugs and kissing. Fuzzy dogs, soft stuffed animals, flower petals, soft hair, ear lobes and soft candle wax just before it melts.

As for taste…it is easier to list what I don’t like. Brussel sprouts, liver, purple candy, lima beans and weird things that should be called food anyway like sushi and innard type parts. Shudder

Thanks for the read and maybe I’ll think of something more entertaining or witty tomorrow. =)

For something cool to do now, feast your eyes on this.