The Laundry Is Making Me Cry

Our sense of smell is a powerful one...

I would like to begin with a quote that I found on the power of scent:
“Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains. ... Smells detonate softly in our memory like poignant land mines hidden under the weedy mass of years. Hit a tripwire of smell, and memories explode all at once. A complex vision leaps out of the undergrowth.”
- Diane Ackerman

It's something that I never truly comprehended until today, because I actually bothered to research what happens! When scent enters our nose, it travels up to the nervous tissue known as the Olfactory Bulb.

(Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory_bulb)

And inside of that bulb, all of this 👇 is taking place! It really is incredible.

(Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-olfactory-bulb-Ampoule-olfactive-Leffingwell-2002_fig3_215767594)

Once the scent has been processed and identified in the bulb, the information is then sent down the olfactory tract, which is connected to the area of the brain responsible for mood, emotion, and memory. This is why certain smells tend to bring back specific memories associated with them.

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Today my scent -- my memory -- was the laundry 😄

I recently bought a tub of Sunlight detergent. You may be unfamiliar with it unless you are Canadian, but it has a very strong, fresh lemon scent to it.

(Source: https://voila.ca/products/667510EA/details)

I had a shower, grabbed a towel to dry off, stuffed my face into its soft cotton, and was instantly teleported back to my childhood. My mother used Sunlight detergent when she did the laundry, a scent that I have not smelled since back then. Thousands of scenes flashed through my mind.

Sunlight peeking through the leaves of the tree as I climbed up its branches, higher and higher.

Sitting on the hill in my backyard, watching the grass dance, the clouds racing in the wind.

Going outside for recess, to a field of hundreds of dandelions.

Getting cozy in bed while reading a story with Mum.

An evening walk through the neighborhoods while selling Girl Scout cookies, trying to spot things that started with the letter A.

(Image created using an AI art generator on Night Cafe)

Showing off my witch's costume by the front staircase right before trick-or-treating.

Hunting for frogs under my friend's backyard porch.

Sitting on my bed, listening to the neighborhood kids laugh and scream outside, watching the sunset paint the sky pink.

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I snapped back to reality (🎶 oop, there goes gravity 🎶), nostalgic and melancholic from the memories that I had not remembered in years.

It truly is incredible, the power of scent.

My father's detergent of choice was always Snuggie. I'm thinking of purchasing that brand next week! 😄 Who knows what other memories can be unlocked?!