Wayne Weekly “Smelling the Snow…a Passing Moment”

I remember after a new snowfall a certain fresh scent that accompanied the brisk winter air. It was a smell that would last for a relatively short time on a winter’s day.

As the years passed, I began to notice that this tang of the season was missing as I left my home and ventured into a world of white. It was a piece of winter gone missing in the great outdoors.

I know that smells are subject to a lot of things that can whisk them away in a moment. I also realize that as a person grows older, their sense of smell diminishes. The olfactory system doesn’t quite meet the standards it did in days gone by.

Most likely the diminishing sense of smell happens so gradually as we age that we might not quickly realize that it’s fading away. I recall realizing this in the springtime when I longed for the scent of spring, and the fragrance was, for the most part, only a memory.

The other morning I took our dog for her usual early walk. It was quite cold out, single digits, and just a light covering of newly fallen snow lay on the ground. As we walked, I all of a sudden had a passing whiff of snow. I focused my senses and sniffed the air in a rapid sequence as I tried to capture another rush of winter. A lingering, and then gone.

Lots of things are forgotten, at least for a season. But it’s such a sublime experience to encounter a moment of pleasure in a simple passing scent, a reminder of past winters and past moments of life.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget none of His benefits;

Psalm 103:1-2