Yesterday, as I walked the dogs, the wind blew and a delicate sweet smell surrounded me. Instantly I was five years old, walking toward our tree house, smelling the honeysuckle perfume in the air. Not realizing I had shut my eyes until I reopened them, I scanned the yards in front of me for the cause of the smell. I was actually looking for honeysuckle, as there is a beautiful desert honeysuckle that grows here. What I found instead was the cactus pictured above. It’s called an Argentine Giant Cactus, and it is huge. The picture doesn’t give you enough of a visual, but the arm pictured was more than six feet long. I stepped up to the flowers (7″ in diameter), crouched down and drew in a deep breath. The smell was heavenly, and again, I was transported to my five year old self. The only difference (besides decades) was that I did not pick these flowers and suck on them, as I would have years ago.

On Monday this week, I was leaving a large store, the lobby had been recently cleaned. As I walked through, I was transported to our neighbor’s house in Kansas. I was nine at the time and the smell of their home was that of some kind of cleaning product and last night’s dinner. It always smelled the same. This week was the first time I had ever experienced anything close to the smell of their home. In fact, I don’t think I ever thought about it until this week when it caught me off guard. My younger brother and I often played at our neighbor’s home, the 2 children close in age with us.  That is, we played there often until my younger brother decided to give his friend, another little boy and himself a hair cut…after that, play times were less frequent and more supervised. The whole of that story is better saved for another time.

Both of my experiences this week were exciting and comforting, reminding me of those happy times. Have you had any ‘blasts from the past’ recently?