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The beauty there was raw; it could kill as easily as it could astonish.
I remember the way the rain seemed to talk to the roof as I fell asleep, and how the fire would snap and tell it to be quiet.
I inhaled, and fell into the fragrance like Alice down the rabbit hole.
Grief makes a tunnel of our lives, and it is all too easy to lose sight of the other people in the darkness with us—to wish they weren’t there, so their loss would stop rubbing up against ours.
It’s amazing how easily we can cast ourselves in the role of hero.
Smells don’t care what the mind or heart wants, however. Scents will find their way around the darkness of closed eyes, slipping past barricades of thought. The body is their accomplice. We can live without food for weeks, and water for days, but try not to breathe and the lungs mutiny.
People lie, Emmeline, but smells never do,
muscle. People are like that—given a chance, we come back, whether we want to or not.
“This place can heal you, if you let it.”
Scents were always about what was growing and what was dying.
listening. I had learned that sometimes it was better to let go of words and listen to smells.
great perfumers don’t have a lot of friends; they have a lot of ingredients.”
‘Dress shabbily and they remember the dress. Dress impeccably and they remember the woman.’”
“Nothing can be always. That’s the first thing a smell teaches you.”
Maybe that’s how it always is, I thought—we all just go along, catching glimpses of one another, thinking we know everything.
In the end, it wasn’t the flavors or the alcohol that made people relax—it was the experience of being seen and understood.
“I think one of the most fascinating things about perfumes is how they change with each person’s skin chemistry.
Home isn’t perfect. Oh, but it can be.
But never forget the base notes, for no fragrance is ever balanced without a touch of musk, or smoke, or sadness. Base notes can come from dark places, but they can create beauty all the same. They are reminders of what we will do to live, and what we can give each other.
