Smells and Bells

 When looking back in my memory for a suitable story having to do with smell, my mind went back to when I was a kid. After my dad passed away, my memory kind of blurs and contorts, but one of my first big impressions of my mom in the after-time had to do with smell. She was only forty when he passed away, and nothing prompts somebody to fall into a midlife crisis like a large tumultuous event like a loss. Her new drug of choice was essential oils. Not in the antivax way, but to compliment them: to dispel mosquitoes or ease headaches or digestion, to put in baths or baked goods. Most commonly, we would make what she called "lotions and potions"- scented oils in any smells we wanted. Though she long lost interest in it, I can see why at the time she gravitated to the allure of smells as a way to escape loss. Green spoke of  "Soothing odors" (72) in The Aroma of Righteousness , as spoken of in the Hebrew Bible, as smells were extolled by the ancient Jewish people, as t...

       In Aroma of Righteousness one idea that really stuck with me is the idea that smell can connect us to something otherworldly. Green uses the example of incense being used to reach God and as a result those people feel closer to God. I'm not a religious individual, when I was forced to go to church as a kid I didn't smell anything and feel connected. But I do think this happens in the real world with much smaller instances, it has the same impact though. I have always lived near water since I live in Rhode Island and as a kid I was constantly surrounded by water. But when I went to college in Virginia it was a shock to me to not smell salt water when I went outside. It's interesting now to think about how I felt so detached from home. When I moved back to Rhode Island I was so happy to hear the sound of the ocean and smell it, even just seeing it I felt so much closer to my home. This to me is a much smaller version of what Green describes when people use incen...

" The acts of lighting incense and the anointment of the priests are also depicted through highly evocative images of distinction and exclusivity." (Green, 69) In this photo, there are three people wearing white robes. Two are priests, who went through years of schooling and religious teachings, who worked hard to be called priests-- pillars of our community. The other person is me. We are not equal in our knowledge, or religious commitments, but we are dressed the same. I have been promoted to their level for one thing: I'm handling the incense.  In my hometown church in Connecticut, this photo was taken in April 2025, on the Saturday of the Great Easter Vigil, the first official service celebrating the return of Jesus. It's held around sunset, and usually also includes a handful of baptisms. I was raised in this church, Trinity Episcopal in Torrington. The two priests behind me in the photo have been priests for me in different times in my life, and are still import...

  Although most of my life, I haven't associated scent with religion, there’s a special comfort in knowing that smells are symbolic of something. It makes me think of the lovely cherry blossoms that grow down the street from my apartment. They were one of the first things I saw when I moved to East Providence, and I would say they have one of the best smells. It reminds me of back home in Vermont, where cherry blossoms sprouted year after year in my front yard, very subtly next to the poison ivy. In many ways, the tree down the street is symbolic of my childhood, from my first poison ivy rash and sandwich picnic to one of the last springs I had with my grandma. The sweet floral scent stays with me, as do its memories. Green states that the term “soothing odor” has been used in literature to describe God’s acceptance of sacrifices (Green 72). Maybe, in some ways, this smell is a sacrifice to me because it is fleeting and doesn’t always come around. Sacrifice to me, then, is knowing ...

            As many individuals in my immediate circle can attest, I have always been quite the “foodie” throughout my 20 years of life. Never once in my existence have I been described as being a “picky eater” (or even a dainty eater, for that matter). While it may seem like a natural progression for someone who has always possessed a love of eating to (inevitably) acquire a great interest in cooking, many family members of mine were taken a bit off guard by my enthusiastic acceptance of the culinary arts. This unpreparedness on their part seems to stem from their preconceived perceptions of me as a possessor of a highly perfectionistic personality type. Cooking, at least in the terms it has most often been described as being to me, is well known as being a practice that doesn’t necessarily require chefs to follow recipes to a tee; there exists a lot of room to improvise on the ingredients (and their portion sizes) that can differ from an original rec...

  Smell transfers you to the location, looking at a picture I'm reminded of the smell and how I felt at this time.I love going outside in the rain it has the fresh clean smell of a new beginning. Everything “dirty” is washed away. The grass is soft and wet, the water droplets everywhere. It’s quiet and all i can hear is the rain hitting the ground. Smell and sound tie closely together for me. With all the industrialization there is a certain smell but after the rain I almost forget about everything else and am transported to what the world was before there is the “soothing oder” green talks about. I sit outside and breathing deeply watching, when someone walks by I get a glimpse of the perfume or cologne they are wearing. If someone is cooking nearby I can smell the delicious aromas. When i sit outside smoking watching it rise up into the air with the mix of the wet earth there is a grounded experience. All of these different smells happening at the same time or though out the time...