Smells

Gratitude 4/9/2026

I am grateful for the gift of a new day.
My heart is filled with gratitude for the many blessings I have.
I will appreciate the small joys and express my thanks in all circumstances.
Let my attitude of gratitude bring joy to others.

I’m grateful that I can have so many wonderful olfactory memories.

There are some smells that are alarming. The horrible smell of a dead animal or rotten food when I open up a container from the dark reaches of the refrigerator, can really set me back on my heels. My mother used to say, “Woof,” when she smelled a bad smell. She must have gotten that somewhere in her farm days when she had to deal with a lot of bad bad smells.

Once we had a terrible smell in an old American Motors Ambassador we drove for a couple years. It wasn’t so bad in the winter, but when the weather warmed up, it was really unpleasant to ride in that car without the windows wide open. One day we had a flat tire and had to open the trunk to get to the spare. There was a bag of grain we had bought for the goats we had that we had forgotten and never removed. It had been there for months. It was an old car and there was a leak in the trunk, so some water had infiltrated the burlap bag and created a science project. The grain was completely rotten with lots of bugs. It was DISGUSTING! But once we disposed of the bag, the car smell was fresh as a daisy!

Burning food gives off a very bad smell, too. Because I’ve burnt so much toast in my life, that smell is very familiar. It has often been followed by a scraping sound as I scape the burnt off the remaining toast. It’s heartsinking to smell the burning remains of a stew or casserole. That bad burning taste invades even the unburnt portions of the meal.

In contrast, there are so many great smells that bring me back to a particular time and place. There was the smell of those cap gun strips that I loved when I played with my neighbor, Janet. Our dad wouldn’t let us near a toy gun, but Janet had one, and smashing those caps smelled so good!

There is also the smell of freshly mowed grass. It takes me back to hot, hot, summer days in Virginia smelling the air as my dad or neighbors mowed the grass.

In Virginia we used to burn the leaves in the autumn. Along with the crisp autumn air, that smell was just great. I remember standing in the smoke and surrounding myself with that smell.

Tonight is the last night of Passover for us. Because I do a lot of cooking, the past seven days have filled the house with some wonderful smells. I cooked a brisket all day last Friday. I cooked it “low and slow” so there was no danger of burning. Lots of onions, wine, and spices made the whole house smell wonderful. I could even smell it from outside before I came into the house.

The smell of baking apple pie, bread, and anything with cinnamon are great smells, too.

Of course there are the smells of spring and summer flowers that are just enchanting. I love the smell of roses and peonies. One of my first memories is watching ants crawling all over peony buds in the back yard on Clinton Street in Columbus when I was 3 or 4. I would then smother my nose in the beautiful pink or white petals to get the full effect of the fragrance.

My mother had a warm comforting smell. I loved to cuddle up with her and take it in. My husband has a different but incredbily comforting smell. I even love smelling clothes he has worn.

For a long time, we didn’t have a dryer here at the farm. I would wash clothes in my grandmother’s old ringer washer and then hang them on the line outside to dry. What a great smell that is! It lasts for days even after the things are put away.

In this old house, we also have heated the TVroom and kitchen with our wood burner. That smell of striking the match and then the aroma of a crackling fire, and even from outside, the smell of the smoke from the chimney. is so comforting and good.

Coffee beans have a great smell. Even people who don’t like coffee like the smell of coffee.

Baby breath is a sweet dear smell. I forgot how much I love that smell until my grandaughers were born and I could take it all in. There is such a purity to that smell. Puppies and kittens have it too.

A new book has a great smell. Being in publishing for so many years, I loved to smell the books we got in right after they were printed!

There are some smells that are so good even though they might be dangerous. I love the smell of gasoline, permanent markers, and rubber cement are those pleasurable smells that can be bad for me!

I take my sense of smell for granted. I rarely think about it. But there are so many things I can recognize without seeing, touching, or hearing them, because I smell them. I know elephants, bloodhounds, bears, sharks, and snakes have much better senses of smell than I do. I remember learning that a dog can distinguish a drop of liquid, like a drop of vanilla extract, in an olympic sized swimming pool. To dogs there are no bad smells. It’s all just information.

I’m no dog when it comes to being able to distinguish smells, but I certainly am grateful for those scents I can sense.