Best Scent Ever

No, it’s not my favourite perfume or fresh strawberries in the summer or traditional Christmas baking… although they are high on my preference list. It’s not the salty smell of the sea either, even if it does say home to me.

It’s actually the scent of linden trees in bloom.

To me, that’s the scent of unadulterated happiness, freedom, love, adventure, togetherness and content. Over the years, fragrant months of June gained new meaning and new layers of emotion and experience; but yes, my childhood and youth are at the root of these sensations.

It was the time of year when anything and everything felt possible. When dreams come true, or at least they feel like they might. When adventure is just around the corner and the possibilities are endless. When nights are short, but heavy with passion and unforgettable sensations. Linden tree flowers infused all those amazing moments and daring hopes and dreams.

That’s what they have in common, those nights gazing at the starry sky from the window of my childhood bedroom, those first date flutters, those evenings when young friends plan their future, distant and near alike, as though they are invincible. Later on, it becomes a mark of contentment, the proof that I don’t need to have everything I used to think I wanted in order to be happy with my life.

And now? Now, while I’m out in the park for a quick walk to photograph the roses on a hot early June afternoon and the more precocious linden trees awaken all those feelings and memories? Well, I suppose their scent is a reminder that I am more than a jaded cynical 40 year old, and intense sensations are still possible if I open my mind and my heart to them.