They did a test recently on a TV programme to see if a mother could tell her baby's nappy just by smell. Sounds gross huh? There were four mother and child teams, each mother fed her child the same food, they wore the same nappies and clothes and when the business was completed the blindfolded mothers were asked to pick which nappy belonged to their child. Each and every mother got it right! I'm not surprised, I suppose it's a series of biological processes.So it got me thinking, our sense of smell is so important to us, but we neglect it don't we? We revel in our other senses, tasting wonderful food and drink, listening to beautiful music, looking at wonderful art or touching our lovers skin. Losing any of these four senses would be terrible, but do we treasure our sense of smell to the same extent? Some people lose their sense of smell through smoking, my aunt lost her sense of smell several years ago ( her sense of taste has been damaged too) she doesn't know how it happened, just did!
I know I treasure all my senses but my sense of smell is one I really love. Personally I love the smell of my loved ones, my kids, my husbands skin, his scent (currently Amen by Philosophy), I love my mum's scent and when she cuddles my kids they smell like Anais, Anais! My maternal grandmother always used Max Factor pressed powder and I love the way it smells, when I smell it I am giving her a big hug, or putting the curlers in her blue rinsed hair. I love the smell of certain foods, Christmas morning in my folks house, roast potatoes, sprouts, the sherry from the trifle and the slight smell of whiskey off my dad's breath. I love the smell of the portable gas stove we used to bring on picnics, then the sizzling smells of the fry we'd have, mopping up the juices with big chunks of bread and butter. The smells of old books fill me with mixed emotions, my dad had a selection of old books he'd scavenged over the yeas and I'd spend hours flipping through them, but the old book smells also reminds me of the little mites (don't know what they were) that lived in the books.....
I'm gonna try and enjoy my sense of smell a bit more, relishing in the smell of a bottle of wine, my Sunday newspaper or the smell of my favorite pastry shop. Maybe we all should?
3 comments:
You're soooo right.
When I suffered from Post Nat Depression after the birth of one of my daughters I found the first thing to lift me out of it was the smell of perfume. Every day I would put on a different perfume and it gave me a much needed lift. I still do it now!
Thanks for reminding me! Hope the snake is settling in!
It's a trait in our family that we have no sense of smell. I wish I had but sometimes it's useful to not be able to smell....... ;-)
I@m ruled by smells, alarmingly so during pregnancy!
I have a little stone bottle of perfume oil that always reminds me of night a friend stayed over, the book I was reading that night, the room - I met her recently and she said it was because we spilled it on her slippers - she remembered it so well too. It was funny. And sweet to have this memory in common.
On the downside, a strong sense of smell is a curse - my husband's smoking is a constant torture to me - I have to keep leaving the room after he comes in having had one of his many cigarrettes, I caqn't kiss or hug him... and he always hangs his works shirts on the sairs, and the whiff of his hard work assails me each time I come upstairs! Strong chemical perfume and soap get me in the throat too (though I do love Anais Anais too!) but I hate when my children smell of other people's perfume! Way to oversensitive.
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