For as long as I can remember, I’ve been extremely sensitive to smells. Ironically, I have a deviated septum and suffer from year round sinus clogging allergies. You’d think with my strong sense of smell that I’d have wide-open sinuses and a nose like Cyrano de Begerac. Nonetheless, a strong sense of smell is the pointless superpower I was born with.
In a conversation with a friend this week, I mentioned that I love how women smell.
When I am near a women, I inhale deeply, often subconsciously, allowing the “flavors” of her smell to roll down the back of my sinuses and into my lungs where I can savor it.
I know. It sounds weird. Perhaps like a fetish. I liken it more to what my dogs do. When they cross an enticing scent, they’ll open their mouths slightly, tilt their noses up, inhale and “taste” the air, often pausing midstep to fully concentrate on the sensation.
I’m not so weird that I run around sniffing women’s feet or dirty laundry. Savoring the scent of a woman is simply part of my everyday experience.
That conversation with my friend triggered a flood of smemories:
…the clean, perfumy smell of “Prell” and “Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific” Shampoo that women used back in the 70s…
…the lifeguard in Florida who smelled like cotton candy that I could smell from across the pool while swimming laps was one of the only pleasant memories I had in the weeks after my wife died…
…the subtle perfume that lingers behind when a woman passes me in the other direction on the hiking trail…
…the smell of a woman’s hair when she hugs me…
…or when she is standing in line in front of me at the grocery store…
… the smell of a woman’s skin when I bury my face in the nape of her neck…
…the smell of hairspray when “big hair” was the thing in high school…
…the smell of bubble yum and bubblicious gum that my teenage girlfriends blew big bubbles with…
…the smell of a woman’s skin after a day of baking outside in the sun is like the smell of life itself – a mix of fresh air, sunshine, grass and trees…
…the smell of a woman’s closet full of clothes – an amalgamation of perfume, laundry detergent, clothes softener, hair spray, lotions and perfumes…
…the smell of salty sweat on my girlfriend’s skin after we played tennis…
…the smell of a woman sleeping next to me in bed…
My all time favorite is the smell of a woman in my arms. I inhale deeply and her scent becomes forever entwined with the memory of the her, us, and the moment.
Upon reflection, my superpower doesn’t seem so pointless after all. Instead, it’s kind of wonderful.