““Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”
”
Seeing home after being gone for so long is emotional. Its hard work.
It makes me cry every single time. The air smells a certain way there. In winter time, it’s a mix of potato stew and burnt Christmas trees. Everything is so familiar and friendly yet so different and distant. There is a unmeasurable joy in my heart to find the things and people that I love still there. The things that are unchanged. The things that did change I find frustrating. Its almost like someone came into my home and re arranged my cupboards and now I cant find my favorite coffee mug. Every time I go back something else changes. Little by little the place that was once so familiar to me is now a mystery.The air smells the same. That smell is where all my memories dance together. Smell and taste are really the most comforting of senses. When you miss something dearly, like I miss home sometimes, you can smell it. You can taste it. That never changes.
I smell my morning walk to school sometimes. I have several different days in memory that I rotate according to season. The one I am most fond of, is a late fall day. The air is fresh and cold and it smells like piles of burned leaves on the side of the road. I can see my breath so I borrow my nose deeper in my scarf. I close my eyes and take a deep warm breath...
Clearly, home is where your nose tells you it is.
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