Scent

Every year, on an early spring day, my windows are flung open, and the scent of the air assures me that winter has past. With the first whiff of freshly-cut grass, I envision drawers and closets filled with shorts, tanks, sundresses and sandals. I see lightening bugs flash on sticky nights and feel ocean waves rolling over my feet. The remarkable power of scent does not accompany memories, but rather, are themselves the memories invoking intense emotion and resurrecting past experiences. Pine takes me to a Christmas tree farm where my son lies on the ground—sawing away as a tree gains its release from the hard earth while his brothers await the falling spruce, their arms outstretched. From a whiff of lemon oil, I see little hands scrubbing the tops of desks on Friday afternoons at my Catholic grammar school. And when I inhale the sweetness of a newborn’s head—known only to mothers—I feel my own babies in my arms moments after their births. The smell of bacon frying and freshly-made coffee in the morning are the Saturdays of my youth when my sleepy eyes saw my father standing at the stove flipping pancakes or frying eggs.

I can still smell the cherry-scented Salon Selectives shampoo and conditioner that my housemates and I religiously washed our hair with during my years at college and the perfect clean scent of wind-dried linens that my mother took down from the clothes line. The odor of the hospital that always hung onto my husband’s skin days after he came home from his cancer treatments captures those tormented years that we somehow managed to fill with hope and laughter. Scent transports us back in time, even to some dark places, but the scents of our lives are part of who we are.

Infusing our home and spaces with pleasing scents is medicine for the psyche. We can chose where we revisit through cinnamon, rose, musk, vanilla, evergreen, beach, citrus and lavender. Candles fill many shops these days, but a a small soy-batched candle company called Birch House Candles in Short Hills, New Jersey, founded by Emily Gunselman has caught my eye. I adore the simplicity of Emily’s design in both her glass and tin collections and the fact that there are no color dyes in the soy wax. The pride she takes in her product is evident as her website instructs customers how to care for the candles, and best of all, each candle is freshly poured by Emily herself. Birch House Candles’ autumn collection includes Harvest Berry, Cozy Cabin and Pumpkin Soufflé. All are divine, but tucked inside the Maple Apple Bourbon candle box is a recipe for an Apple Maple Bourbon cocktail to enjoy on a brisk night as the candle fills the air with the comforting scent of autumn.

It couldn’t get better.

Treat Yourself

Birch House Candles are available at Paper Ribbon & Wrap and Highline Fashion in Millburn, NJ, The Local Line in Red Bank, NJ and The Greenhouse in Summit, NJ. If you’re not in the area, candles and diffusers can be ordered online through the link below.

https://www.birchhousecandles.com/