Flowers have the most powerful affect on people. Their sweet fragrance that fills the air is so potent that often the scent is then attached to a memory. It can bring on sudden feelings of nostalgia when our souls are united again with the aroma.
I had such an occasion yesterday when I was walking outside and passed a few blossoms of pink hyacinth blooming at a friends house. I was immediately reminded of last April, with spring in full bloom, I delivered a beautiful baby girl. My mother sent me a gorgeous flower arrangement bursting with blooming hyacinth that smelled up my apartment for a week. I know now that every spring I will be reminded of the birth of my beautiful daughter, Camila Bella, when I smell hyacinths.
More somber memories come form the smell of lilies. Their sweet potent fragrance reminds me of the difficult days that followed the sudden passing of my father when I was 17. We took many of the beautiful funeral arrangements home to enjoy and our home smelled of casa blanca and stargazer lilies for days and days.
These scents are so powerful that even when working among them daily, I can say I have been caught off guard with tears in my eyes in more than once occasion.
Can you relate to this? I would love to know what different flower scents mean to you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
OOps... my other one didn't go thru.
ReplyDeleteThis was a beautiful post. And yes I can totally relate. Scents do take me back to a place in my past. I can not pinpoint which fragrance, I just feel teh warm breeze or cold gust associated to a moment in time when I smelled that scent.
I have heard that the sense of smell is the strongest sense in relation to memories.
ReplyDeleteI understand the feeling, I don't know flowers well so I am not sure what kind this is...
But in the neighborhood I grew up in there were these bushes that had little purple flower clusters growing in them and if you popped the head of the flower off there was a natural sugar in it that the neighbor kids would eat (I know we were weird) but whenever I smell that I think of home and I think of spring/summer.
Thanks for reminding me of these memories :)
I don't know of any particular flower scent that has such a strong tie to an event for me, but I know that certain scents do. Although I find that often, I'll know that the scent is familiar, and it will evoke a strong emotion, but I can't always remember or pin down what the reason for the emotion is!
ReplyDeleteI'm never really around flowers very much, except for our daily walks around the neighborhood here in SoCal. Because I never smell fresh cut flowers, when I do catch the fragrance it instantly reminds me of Dad. That week our house was full of flowers, as well as the funeral home and cemetery. I miss him.
ReplyDelete