What's That Smell?

I drove with my children to Atlanta for the holiday. Reluctantly, I took their dog, Coco. At one point during the drive we stopped and I offered for the dog to get out of the car and stretch his legs a bit. I lifted the back door of my car, and instead of jumping out he stood and sniffed the air. He didn’t like what he smelled, apparently, because he refused to get out, though I’d heard him whimpering just minutes before. I looked in the direction from where the wind was blowing, apprehensive, but not seeing anything in the night. Dogs pick up vibes with their wet noses that we can’t even see, looking right at a thing, smiling right in our face.

What the dog smelled reminded me of my hairstylist in L.A; a very interesting, savvy and wise woman. We met in a gym. From the time we first set eyes on each other we were drawn; not sure why, just funny how that happens. I made an appointment one day at a new hair salon and found my gym friend was a stylist there. We became big friends. One day when I was there, at her salon, we were talking about how people turn their personalities on and off. How people, overwhelmingly, don’t feel their feelings. How people are emotionally dishonest. How we pretend so many things. She gave an example of a couple arguing and said that when you walk in on their argument they stop arguing and smile as if nothing’s wrong. Then I agreed and added that you can tell that something’s wrong despite the smiling faces because you can feel it; the energy, in the air. Robin said no, you don’t feel it; you smell it. I was fascinated by that comment. She went on to give her insight that if you walked into a room where there were angry people the biochemicals – the neurotransmitters - would give off a scent; the increased heart rates likely causing sweatiness and other bodily secretions that emit a smell – a smell that you would not be able to identify as norepinephrine or acetylcholine, etc. but nonetheless would be familiar … the smell of anger. I suppose it’s not a whole lot different from other smells. Like the smell of desire, for instance. I know that smell …

So, her point was that we think we feel the energy when we walk into a situation; and maybe we do ‘feel’ something but, before we get close enough to feel anything, in fact, we smell it first. Interesting …

Think about it…

Bisous!