Sniff

A sniff, a deep breath, an inhale. Who loves the smell of horse poop?  <raisin’ hand> I do!!!

I spent the afternoon in a muddy corral with 22 horses surrounding me.  I was home.  My soul felt as if it returned. The hair on my clothes from the shedding horses, the mud on my boots and the smell of them on my hands from petting them made my day!  When a smell brings you back to somewhere in your life that was such a large part of making you the person you are today, it’s moving.

Scratching the nose of a 2 day old filly and watching a red heeler nipping at a geldings hind legs brought me back to  cold mornings when I was a child and my Dad would always get up so early to do chores before he would leave for work.  When he came in every morning he wore a sheepskin lined Wrangler jean jacket and it always smelled like hay and animals. It was crisp and cold and when he hugged me it was a smell I longed for everyday.

A friend of mine said that her “smells” reminded her of security and I think that is probably what that jean jacket full of barn smells represented to me too.  A Dad who worked hard and provided such a sense of security for all of us.

What is your smell?