The Mind's Nose

Smell—it takes us back. In my mind’s nose (for lack of a better term), I can smell the halls and classrooms of my first-grade school, Siuslaw Elementary. Back then, the smell was a bit scary, like giant crayons and mimeograph monsters closing in on me. I was six years old, and it was my first school experience. I was timid and tiny, looking for anything that would bring a bit of comfort to my nervous little heart. After a while, the smell of paste did become a comfort—partly because I liked the aroma, and partly (I suppose) because it meant we were probably doing some sort of art project, which I loved. Now when my smell memory takes me back to that long hallway, I don’t recall it with trepidation—it evokes in me an appreciation for all that is good and magical about school as a young learner.

Certainly, we can recall smells that were bad—those that evoke unpleasant memories. But I’d like to believe that we tend to focus most on those that bring us joy and make us smile. Like the smell of the punch and doughnuts they always served after church when I was a young Sunday School-goer at the Florence Evangelical Church. I would hurry downstairs, along with other anxious youth trying not to knock over any blue- or pink-haired old ladies who were descending carefully into the fellowship hall. Laced with coffee overtones, I could smell those doughnuts—they were the biggest and fluffiest I had ever seen. It was almost as if these doughnuts existed just for my church’s fellowship time. The sugary sweetness clung to my fingers and bid me to eat just one more. And I would chase it down with red punch.

My Aunt Lorraine’s house always smelled a bit like a woodsy mixture of home-baked goodies and talcum powder. It was a smell that said “settle in, and you’ll be taken care of.” Pleasant and comforting. It wasn’t like a “new house” smell. This was an established, homestead-like smell—one that conveyed stability and longsuffering, mixed with charm and savory spices.

Smell connects us to our past, and it can also be a builder of the future. Flowers that you just love the smell of, so you always keep them growing around your home. Then your children, your grandchildren experience the delightful fragrance of those flowers—and smell-memory connections are made.

Without smell, we wouldn’t have the sensation of taste. Food would be bland. We wouldn’t get to smell our wife’s or husband’s familiar scent. We wouldn’t know the pervasive essence of a tree-enclosed creek on the breeze. Life just wouldn’t have the zest and virility it was meant to have.

Thank the Lord that he gave us the ability to smell. The Bible even says we are a smell—2 Corinthians 2:15 – “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” In fact, there are at least 45 Scripture verses that have to do with smell…from blossoms…to incense…to the cedars of Lebanon. Smell is important to God.

My mom always used to say, “People need to stop and smell the roses.” She meant that we need to experience the simple blessings God has given us, take notice of the beauty around us, and purpose to find something wonderful in each day.

Go forth, and smell with gusto!