It smells good out here ..like incense. Kind of organic ..like rain-soaked earth. Although there’s an offshore flow, we are sheltered ..so the air is still and I feel warm on the beach. The ocean has a pungent aroma of it’s own ..like a living organism ..like the thousands or other living organisms it hosts. The sun illuminates ..the water evaporates ..and I take a deep breath. Makes me feel connected to everything out here. The sense of smell is the oldest and least understood ..but it has the most connections to other areas of the brain. On days like this it gives me a sense of belonging ..I hear my mother calling me ..the warmth of bread baking in the oven ..my grandmother’s gentle voice ..the one my dad inherited (thank goodness, my grandfather was a baritone) ..I feel enveloped by the elements ..like a cocoon ..like my mother’s womb ..I can see the sight of a smell ..and feel the warmth of it’s partnership with comforting memories of early childhood ..feels like home.
5 comments:
This is about the sweetest thing I believe I ever read, that you wrote... you mention the smell of incense... I remember the smell of the air in New Mexico, there was nothing quite like it... climbing the Sandia's you could actually smell the little mountain flowers and pinon trees... organic, like rain--soaked earth... nice... and perhaps the ocean is a living organism... just like Gaia... the sun illuminates, the water evaporates... you take a deep breath... peace in that unity, that agreement between interactions... I love the memories that these things evoke in you... even the comfort of your mother's womb... primordial comforts... thank you for sharing that experience...
Why thank you ..smell is a very underrated sense ..
Tom Robbins considered, in his book Jitterbug Perfume, that memories are most connected by the sense of smell. I was just learning to cook for myself at the time I read that book so it was fascinating to consider aroma as a musical chord.
Your style of writing is sense-ational.
Brad ~ Thanks for the Tom Robbins reference ..I’ve also heard that people make the best memory cues.
I think it runs both ways, or at least it should. You should be able to see what you smell and vice versa. I happen to do both.
I love the smell of a crisp cool afternoon when it is cool but sun shining like it will be the uns last day lighting our Earth.
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