Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE

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A passion for scent

We get so many stimuli thrown at us these days, from noise in the streets, loud music, noxious fumes, hustle and bustle, marketing adverts everywhere that combine to make an onslaught on our senses that are enough to dull us to the subtle beauty that surrounds us. It's time to pause, look, listen, taste....and smell.

There are so many dimensions to living and so many aspects of life that are worthy of more attention. To savour the flavours of our food; the simple unaduleration of raw carrot, of an undressed letuce leaf. An old Chinese saying tells us 'we should chew our drinks and drink our food'; in other words take such time to savour and aid good digestion that your food is chewed till it becomes fluid and savour your drink as though it's your last.

One thing I do notice more is my sense of smell; something that is improving by an inverted ratio to my deteriorating vision, as age now requires me to wear reading glasses. To open one's nostrils to what's around is wonderful. And when we pass a truck pumping out diesel fumes, turn the other way and pass as quickly as possible. Cigarette smoking in England will be banned in public places from 1st July, just as Scotland and Ireland, so we will not have those fumes clogging up our senses. (However, I must admit to enjoying the occasional whiff of Gauloise if I pass a French cafe! Shame on me.)

I just love the scents of beautiful flowers, perfumes, the fresh spring air, the tang of cut grass, and even the smell of burning wood in an outdoor bonfire. A good friend of mine, an award winning health and beauty journalist, who moved to rural France two years ago and who has just started a wonderful blog site called tout sweet where she talks of her latest adventures, says....."And there is no bottled perfume that smells as good as freshly laundered cotton sheets left to gently blow-dry on a line." And don't you agree?

Another friend of mine runs a small company called Enata specialising in fragance for the home and bespoke perfume. Her creations are extraordinary; elusive and agonisingly beautiful, mysteriously exotic or tantalisingly simple as fresh-air-dried sheets. They are truly unique works of art in their own right, all made from natural organic ingredients. And guess what....I'm having one made right now. She designed one for me a couple of years ago but now it's finished I just had to order more. They called it 'Noel' surprise, surprise and it's specially formulated to reflect my personal appreciation and love of such bizarre smells as freshly cut grass, old leather, aged wood, bonfire smoke, musty libraries and old churches as well as roses, jasmine, lemon and mountain air. One's favourite smells are used as inspiration for a unique combination of organic ingredients that combine to make the most wonderful, deep and multi-layered perfume that I just can't get enough; it's not overpowering but subtle, rich yet refreshing, light but with depth, fun yet mature and oh, so very what-I-like. It will arrive in a couple of weeks as it's being mixed and filtered at present. Ah!

This weekend I shall go out, open my eyes to what's around, open my ears to the bird song and open my nose to all those little scents that can waft by on the breeze without being noticed. It's time to heighten my awareness, to enrich the soul and lift my heart, increasing the potency of all that's good about daily living, to really appreciate what's so easily taken for granted. You might like to join me....... :-)

Have a great weekend.

Posted by Noël on May 25, 2007 8:43 AM | Permalink