Without the Scents of Spring

Photo by Tīna Sāra on Unsplash

Many look forward to spring and its promises of hope, renewal, warmer days and peaceful nights. Summer is right around the corner. Reminders of the season’s plight are everywhere — from colorful displays of tulips to blossoming lilac trees. The visual components are quite powerful, yet the scents of the season are what have always triggered my memories, my longing, my child-like imagination and my dreams.

The lilac trees that grew in my childhood yard remain my most vivid memory. I can still feel my young hands reaching to cut the perfect bundle of lavender to bring to my teacher. I can see my mom replacing the water in the vase on the kitchen table. I can feel the grass underneath me as I lay under the lilac tree, watching my dad hose off our enormous Wolfies. I can smell the fragrance filling my imaginative mind with wafting words that will one day dance their way to my journals.

This spring, however, has been different. For the first time, I got COVID. While the symptoms were mild, it has been the loss of my ability to smell that has proven to be most eye-opening. It’s one of those things that we often don’t appreciate until it’s gone.

My loss of smell led me to research studies on our olfactory sense. I learned that in terms of evolution, it is one of the oldest senses as it provided organisms with the ability to identify food, dangers and even mating partners. We humans actually have about 50 million receptor cells that relay information to our brains so we can perceive smell.

Depending on your likes and interests, you may appreciate your ability to smell wine, flowers, a newborn baby. But have you actually taken the time to appreciate this ability you have? Are you aware of the ways in which your sense of smell actually enhances your experience of all that is around you?

Photo by Joey Nicotra on Unsplash

This is what I find the most interesting: We often don’t realize how much we rely upon something until it is gone. It’s not as simple as the concept of taking things for granted. It’s more layered than that. It’s actually sometimes quite challenging to appreciate something that is so expected, common and simply part of our everyday life.

For example, I don’t appreciate the fact that I woke up today without a headache unless I had suffered from the pain the previous day — then I’m extra grateful. Otherwise, it’s just a part of my reality, and it’s not getting any notice. Same thing with one’s sense of smell. If you had not temporarily lost it, you likely wouldn’t wake up today thinking, “wow — I can smell. Lucky me!”

So, as spring prepares its exit and as summer is about to roll in, I am extra grateful for my returning ability to smell the scents of the seasons. I am grateful that I am headache free today. I am grateful that I can write, share and connect with all of you.

I’d love to hear your experiences with taking things for granted and/or with gratitude for simple things in life that we often forget to cherish. Please share.

Wishing you abundant scents of flowers, puppy breath smells or whatever brings you joy!