Scents are such powerful things. I put some rose oil and lavender oil in a blue spray bottle with some distilled water and am spraying it around the house all the time. It is SO fresh and really lifts the spirit.
I got a bar of beautiful rose soap and that’s wonderful, too. I find that I am very picky about scents. If it’s the wrong rose or the wrong lavender, it doesn’t make the cut.
I hope you will think about how scent can minister to you today, wherever you are. Maybe the smell of chocolate baking, or chocolate and orange in a warm cup held to your face. Piney or woodsy scents (another one of my beloved fragrances is piñon wood), or a deep red wine with a hint of leather in it. Yum. Heaven.
I hope this doesn’t sound snobby but I think that having GOOD scents around us — not chemically heavy, manufactured versions of them but luxurious and natural concoctions — is great medicine. Think frankincense and myrrh, darlings.
After bathing today, I got out my summer citrus-based perfumes and doused myself in them. I’m not going anywhere, so there’s no chance I’ll wind up as a Human Lemon Bomb to some unsuspecting and innocent humans.
This is my enduring favorite. Yuzu Rouge. It only lasts for like, five minutes, but OH those five minutes!
I have a bottle of room spray that I bought in Barcelona forever-ago that I have been hoarding because the company stopped making it. It is called Eucalyptus Bleu by Esteban of France and whenever I spritz it (you just need the tiniest little dash) I feel that I’m in one of those incredibly beautiful, fashionable little boutiques in that most magical of cities.
Luxury means different things to different people. For me, a bottle of something special and delicious will bring me to my happy place and keep me there for a long time. For someone else, a snowy afternoon snowshoeing across a beautifully empty field will do it. Don’t listen to those inner voices that shame you into needing or wanting some beauty, luxury or good and heavenly smells in your life. Yes, God provides all we need, but God has also provided roses and cacao beans and pine trees and there’s no reason you shouldn’t rejoice in them. Ministers cannot live by Spirit alone, my friends. Now go get out of those smelly pj’s, take a nice warm bath, and anoint yourself.
Yours in yummy smells, PB
I burn frankincense and myrrh regularly. I have some scents that I have been hoarding and not spritzing. Time to open my hand. And, thanks for the idea of putting my oils in water to spritz. Fab!
My nose is blocked due to an oncoming cold, but this post is generally good advice. A little bit of luxury (or just noticing the lovely things around us) is so important to lift the spirits, I think.
Oh, I do love snowshoeing in the woods! On snow or rain days I like to make applesauce in the slow cooker, the house smells lovely. For a pick-me-up at work I keep Caudalie beauty elixir in my desk.