Follow Your Nose

Re-introduce yourself to your neglected sense -- your sense of smell. Smell is something we don't think of often. Unless maybe we are perfume makers or work on a garbage collection truck. We can miss the sensuous and delicious smells around us, or we can purposefully bring them to our awareness.

Smells can bring surprises. Smells are the sense most likely to activate memories. A scent from a flower or article of clothing can drift by and affect us -- deepen our experience of our day, if we let it.

In the fall, it's the smell of cold, of crimson leaves dying. In the spring, we smell the soil as it offers up new growth and we catch the fresh breath of little birds in the wind. When we're lucky enough to live near roses in bloom or a bakery, we delight in the familiar scents. Then there's how your baby smells, your mother, your lover.

We can enjoy a broad palette when it comes to our sense of smell. A way to expand your palette is to go for a "scent walk". Just take a walk and notice the smells that come your way. You may find a coffee shop, a faint smell of pancakes from next door, you may even smell snow. When you're finished, open your eyes, get a piece of paper and describe what you experienced. You may deepen your experience by writing in your own words what you noticed. Try using words that describe the smells in new ways. Before you know it, you may be writing poetry!

- Storm Maxwell

Photo Credit: Diane Stevens