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Berries bring us back to the carefree summer afternoons of our childhood--that is, unless you happened to spend a summer picking berries on a farm, like a friend of ours did (he's doesn't look back on those days with quite the same amount of fondness).

The rest of us will be delighted to hear about a new long-term study showing that berries don't only play a role in the creation of happy memories, but they can also help us hold on to them. Research published in the journal Annals of Neurology explains that women who ate strawberries and blueberries more frequently over a period of time showed slower decline in memory and attention as they got older than those who at them less often. This welcome research suggests that the tasty fruits may play a role in keeping aging brains healthy.

Based on this study, the sooner you start eating berries, the better it will be for your brain. Fortunately, this year's early spring means that strawberries already growing in the South. Pop them plain, or try one of these berry-centric recipes:

Start your day with a Blueberry Brain Boost Smoothie
Make Arugula with Berries and Feta for lunch
Mix Balsamic Strawberries into a dinner salad, or serve on top of chicken
Surprise someone with a dessert of Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Keep reading:
More ways to keep your brain young

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I was chatting with my cab driver on the way to the airport the other day and asked how he liked the neighborhood where we both live. He acknowledged that it was "okay," and that he enjoyed the large Bangladeshi community. But of course he would rather be back home in Bangladesh, he said, turning around to give me a meaningful look. "Your soul is always at home, you know." It wasn't a question.

"Yep!" I said. "It sure is!" I didn't want to say anything else because I liked it better when he was actually watching where he was driving. But in a few minutes, I was going to catch a flight "home," the nice Midwestern suburb where I grew up, a place I feel a friendly affection for, but not exactly where I feel that my soul languishes when I'm not visiting it. It seems to me that "home" is where you feel understood; some people just have to travel to find it.

So why is it that some people spend their lives chafing against the place where they were born and move as far away as soon as possible, while others feel that their souls belong in this place where they come from? Is it a matter of temperament? I suspect there is some internal equation in us all that determines how compatible we are or are not with the place we happen to be born, taking into account variables such as opportunity, chance, and even the weather. In the case of Lillian Jacobs, it turned out she and her childhood home were a perfect fit: This New Yorker has lived on the same street for 100 years.  According to the New York Times, Jacobs, who has lived in 5 different homes on East 84th Street in Manhattan's Upper East Side, "I don’t know why. But it seemed to be destined that I stay on East 84th."

You must read the New York Times article for the portrait of 84th Street as it evolved from a barren strip of tenements (complete with bathtubs in the kitchens and toilets in the hallways) to a leafy row of brownstones, and for a passel of moving life stories which have played out on this street.  What strikes me here is how sanguine and contented Jacobs seems with her extremely localized life. While some people search the world for their soul mates and life's passions, Jacobs found it all in her small-town-like corner of Manhattan -- her husband of 72 years, a home in which to raise her family, a life worth remembering. In today's world, where so many of us scatter to the edges of the earth, and move around from place to place, there's something to be said for an existence in which, as another resident of 84th Street put it, “The life cycle is repeated in front of your neighbors."

I know a 96-year-old woman who lives in a nursing home in the tiny town where she's lived her whole life. The last time I visited her, she wheeled down the hall, muttering about being lonely. She couldn't even get through her sentence, though, because everyone who walked by -- the nurses, the other patients, visiting family members -- interrupted her to say hello, or to tell us some story they remembered about her as their school librarian, or as a young woman, or as a child. Moments from her whole life swirled around her head like a swarm of happy bees as she scooted down toward lunch.

Who knows, maybe some of our souls are more portable than others. But at the end of your life, whether you've made your home halfway across the world from where you were born, or whether you've never left the block, what a gift: to know people, to have them know you.

Read More:
Home as a Place of Connection
Aging, and Becoming an Invisible Woman
The Real-Life Rosie the Riveters

Thanks for watching LIFECLASS finale. Yes, I personally am reading your posts.  So rewarding to know we hit some nerves and opened some people to know their best selves.  I know some of you are starting gratitude journals as a result of last night's class. That is so great. Notice the difference it makes in your day when you're seeking for the good.
 
Jump start your gratitude by playing our Thank you game. Today's challenge: thank someone who gave you an opportunity.  For me: QUINCY JONES who discovered me for the COLOR PURPLE.  "Alllll my life I had to fight "!  :-) :-)

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Never mind that I have a closet full of stemmed wine glasses still in their original boxes. When I'm cooking dinner and decide to pour myself a glass of pinot grigio (I had to open the bottle anyway, to add it to the chicken, right?), I reach for a juice glass. There's something low-key about sipping wine out of a Duralex tumbler. I'm not alone; this recent post from TheKitchn touts the squat little cup's "charm and casual, everyday vibe that says 'relax and enjoy.'"

In the spirit of using everyday objects in untraditional ways, here are 5 more mom-would-never-do-this ways to repurpose kitchen and dining pieces. What are yours? Tell us in the comments.

1. Kitchen towels as napkins. If you buy them at a restaurant supply store, they're very cheap (such as these 100% heavyweight cotton ones, $12 for a dozen).

2. Mason jars for yogurt, fruit and granola parfaits. Adapt the craze for all sorts of desserts and sweets in jars to your breakfast.