What's this all about, you ask? Click on the picture and find out - after you read this entry, natch ;-)My sense of smell was not knocked completely out of commission with this last cold/allergy attack/whatever the sam-hill it was that I experienced. This is entirely a good thing.
As I have been rather focused on my nose for this past week or so, I thought it would be entirely appropriate to have a smell-o-rama version of Mysterious Mondays.
So let us consider the sense of smell...It has the unique and mysterious capacity, out of all the senses, to transport us instantly back in time, and to another place, at the first whiff of a familiar scent. When we are mindful, it warns us of danger; alternatively, it invites us to relax and experience bliss. Since smell is so simple, yet so profound, I suspect it's deeply connected to our more intuitive, instinctive natures (from which our appreciation of mystery and miracle arises).
My top six fave smells - subject to shift at a moment's notice:
~Woodsmoke. This scent can calm me and excite me all in the same breath. I feel most Authentic and Power*full and Mysterious when I take it in. I joke that "eau d'woodsmoke" is the preferred perfume for pagans. ;-)
~Rose. If woodsmoke brings out my inner pagan, then rose awakens my inner Goddess. Rose is the scent most affiliated with the Great Mother. I am at my most yin when I am resplendent with Rose.
~Lavender. My "go-to" summer scent. It cools, calms, refreshes.
~Vanilla. My "go-to" winter scent. It warms, calms, soothes.
~Pine. The scent of pine trees in the breeze stirs feelings of freedom within me. Between their delicious smell and the sound the breeze makes as it passes through their needles, I could stay in a pine grove for hours.
~Ocean. Often imitated but never truly duplicated. The smell of the sea also stirs feelings of freedom within me. It clears me out and lifts me up, when I'm in need of a boost. Combine the scent with the sound, and here's another place I could stay for hours.
Now for a couple of personal mysteries around smell...
~I have a pair of "eco-friendly" candles that say they're lavender. Yet when I sniff at 'em, I catch the distinct smell of patchouli mixed in. I am not fond of patchouli. Nowhere does it say that patchouli is a part of the candle scent. So why do I smell patchouli? :-o
~My mother and I are "triggered" by different sets of smells. By "triggered," I mean at the first whiff of something, the immediate reaction goes along the lines of "ye-gods-get-that-offensive-odor-out-of-nasal-range-Right-NOW!" Mother reacts most adversely to nature-based smells (we have a cat, so I think I don't need to elaborate too much on that! lol). I, on the other hand, react most adversely to artificial chemical smells. Mother's favorite cleaner, for example, is this stuff called BAM. Yes, it's really good - but when she starts using it, I have to leave the room. Sometimes I have to leave the house.
Certain chemical cleansers just set me off, and I have to remove myself from their vicinity. I think it goes back to a lab-session in an Organic Chemistry class, when I mixed two things together, got overwhelmed by the fumes, and had to all-but-run from the room to inhale some fresh air At Once!
An interesting "side effect" of my journey has been a greater appreciation of food. I find myself attracted more and more to the scents of cooking, and will often stop in a doorway and inhale deeply, throwing my head back so that I can take in the scent fully through both nostrils. It doesn't matter what's cooking, really; I love most all the food scents. I even still appreciate the smell of meat on the grill. I have been known to stop in my tracks and breathe deeply, now and again, to pay homage to the rich and tangy scent of meat as it wafts by. Eat it, though? No thanks, not these days.
Maybe I won't be completely vegan until the pleasure I derive from smelling cooking meat disappears from my being. There's a Mystery for you to ponder...! ;-)
So on that note, toodles, peeps!
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