The sweet smell of life…
Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey
“Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary, and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains.” Diane Ackerman, an American author.
I was eight. It was summer in the Dayton, Ohio, of the 50s. I remember running through the grass barefoot. My toes and my nose felt good. That nose detected the smell of fresh grass. Those toes felt the soft, resilient grass beneath me. Maybe, who knows, one summer morning, that aging nose will sense that sweet aroma again.
As a college freshman, I dated a woman who always wore the same splendid perfume. One day, a half-century later, I stepped into an elevator at work. The air filled with that same aroma. It took me back to my 19th year and that girlfriend.
Life is full of the unexpected.