Do You Smell That Smell?
Some of you heard me chat about this before but here I go again.
One of the best things about quitting smokes for me was getting so much
of my sense of smell back. Yes, the old snozzeroo is really working
nowadays. At first, the thrill of being able to Really Smell Again was a
bit conflicting. To be able to smell freshly cut veggies, the scent of
flowers, my skin after taking a shower, the earthy smell of my dog (ok,
there’s pluses and minuses to that one).
I quit in October. Two weeks later the State Fair came to town. Wow!
what a smorgasborg of odors!! Not in over 30 years had I experienced the
smells that I ran into at the fair. Cotton candy, sausage dogs with
onions and peppers, french fries, all sorts of different body smells
like cologne, perfume, sweat, and the bad odors like when I passed the
dumpster - ewww! those were really bad! But the good outweighed the bad
and it still does.
One of my favorite things to do is to go to the grocery store and hang
around the bakery. OMG, I cannot believe that I have missed that
Bodacious Smell of Fresh Baked Bread for so long!!! I have decided that
bread is the ultimate high in my life for now. I’m going to ask the kids
for a bread machine for Mother’s Day. They will get it for me, probably
fall over each other running to the store to buy one in their enthusiasm
that Mom is finally going to do a Mom-thing. Whatever, as long as I have
the aroma of fresh-baked bread in the house.
I guess I can appreciate the sense of smell quite a bit when I get out
on my motorcycle. My DH and I got out and rode last weekend. He lead me
for a few hours through some beautiful NC countryside. When you’re going
down the road at 60 plus mph on a bike and the wind is rushing by you,
you have to realize that the wind is also rushing (in a sense) up your
nose. What exhileration!!! Fresh cut grass, clean air, and going across
the lake, I could actually SMELL the lake!!! OK, so the chicken farm was
not the highlight of my ride as far as smells but the fields afterwards
with the freshly upturned soil was heavenly.
I guess this post is just a reminder to pay attention to your senses
that come back to you when you quit smoking. Please take time to
appreciate what you have given back to yourself. OK, this sounds corny,
but the expression “take time to stop and smell the roses” makes a hell
of a lot more sense to me now - now that I can actually smell them.
- Cat
April 16th, 2004 at 3:43 am
Getting my sense of smell back has also been one of the things I’m
really enjoying about being quit. It’s been a glorious sunny day
here in the UK, and we’ve not long got home from a day on the beach
up here in Northumbria (just got stuck in the traffic home, so the
journey took a lot longer than planned). To our USA and Canada
friends here, the beauty of living on a small island like England
that a beach is never going to be very far away, but we do live quite
close.
I hadn’t realised how great the seaside smells were (well, most of
them anyway) - the smell of the seaspray and the seaweed especially.
I’d forgotten how fresh the air smells, having been stuck indoors for
what seems forever, with only short walks that were absolutely
essential. And how great to be able to walk for miles and not get out
of breath, not having to try to smoke a cig with the wind blowing and
getting smoke in your eyes. Wonderful
KatieUK
nearly 100 days quit
April 16th, 2004 at 6:13 pm
Katie - me too, me too! Ok, its early days for me - a week into the
new quit, and another week cig free before the 3 cig episode, but I
really could smell the sea and sand today like never before
You said
how true - and I live on the south coast, and its been glorious here
today too. I’m lucky - we can see the sea from the bedroom window.
Carla
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