Stop and Smell the Puppies

When little girls reach out their closed fist to you and say “smell this” go ahead, it’s going to smell good. But when little boys reach out their hand to you and say “smell this,” don’t.  It’s going to smell bad.  Trust me on this one, I raised four boys.  

One rainy day I decided to warm up the feel of the house by making some homemade bread and beef stew.  I knew everyone would be chilled and low because of the bad weather and thought it might perk everyone up.  I had the stew cooking in a crockpot and as the stew cooked it filled the house with a warm beefy aroma.  Then I got my bread maker going and the aroma of the fresh baked bread mixed perfectly with the stew. Jon and the boys were coming up to the dinner table commenting on how good it smelled and we were sitting down to this delicious, aromatic meal when the phone rang.  It was my work.  They asked why I was not there, that I had a class to teach in a half hour and I’m usually an hour early so they were wondering if something was amiss.  Sh*t!  I hung up, threw on some nicer clothes and headed out the door into the rain and all I could think about was missing out on that beautiful aromatic meal.  To this day when I smell fresh baked bread that evening comes to mind - how difficult it was to leave the warm aroma of that meal behind me as I ran through the rain to my car. 

This then is called the Proust Effect - the vivid reliving of events from the past through sensory stimuli.  And it happens to most of us quite often.  When you smell something, to process the smell, your brain uses the same areas that it would use to process emotions and memories. This makes smells an incredibly effective trigger of memories and intense emotions.

There are a lot of smells that bring me back to memories of my past but the smell that really brings back my childhood is a woody smell that I usually pick up in old houses.  It smells like Grandma’s house and especially the basement of Grandma’s house where we used to crack walnuts with Grandpa.  When I catch a whiff I immediately have flashbacks of all of these random memories from visits to her home - chocolate chip cookies, peppermint ice cream, penny candy, gum drops in little cereal boxes, the library where Grandma worked and read so many Dr. Seuss stories to us, the elephant slide in the park, the five and dime store, the cobblestone streets, the glider on the porch, the glass doorknobs and skeleton keys, the big round dining room table and Grandma wanting a good night kiss after putting noxema all over her face.  All of these joyful memories make me smile by way of the smell of old wood.  

When I think of my favorite smells they include fresh cut grass which means summer is here, my garden filled with herbs so when I prune it is a party of delicious smells - lavender, rosemary, oregano, mint, basil, chives.  Breast fed baby heads is on that list as is the smell of puppies.  The research shows that coffee is one of the most common “favorite smells” which I would have to agree with along with campfires, and meat cooking in my son’s smoker next door.  

When I think of my least favorite smells what comes to mind is the smell of cigarette smoke, cinnabons which used to be a good smell to me but now is sickeningly sweet.  The incessant smell of urine throughout my mission visit to China.   My least favorite smells also include overripe fruit or old water in a vase of flowers.  Interestingly enough I hate the smell of blue cheese but love the taste. Not sure how that works.  

Even the names for good smells are smooth and soothing - scents, fragrance, aroma. 

And the names for bad smells?  Harsh and ugly making your nose curl up as if you are already smelling those bad smells - odor and stench.

I often go looking for things to smell.  I can’t pass a flower without bending my head down to take a whiff. I refuse to plant roses in my garden that don’t have a scent.  I intentionally go outside after a good rain to smell the air.   I go to the Farmers’ Market not so much to purchase produce as to pick up those beautiful fresh bundles of basil, green onions and lavender and breathe their aroma in deeply - somehow extremely soothing.  I love walking up to any one of the booths and sniffing fresh peaches, nectarines and oranges.  And in early summer the smell of strawberries wafting through the air everywhere I walk.  It’s a cornucopia of heavenly scents.  

I often think of Mac Davis’ 1974 album “Stop and Smell the Roses”. 

I know he doesn’t mean to literally stop and smell the roses but maybe he should.  

Maybe we should all stop and smell as many smells as we can, bring on those delightful memories and bask in the joy.