Do you have a favorite flower?
I have a hard time picking one favorite, but the peony is definitely in my top ten. Their lush blooms, their spicy smell, their faithful, every year blooms are three of the reasons. And another is the memories. My aunt had two peony bushes in her yard when I was a kid. My mom has a picture of me when I was maybe two or three standing by the peony bush wearing a big hat. My two sisters also took pictures by the peony bush that day. I think the peony bushes were the big stars in the photos.
Whatever the reason for my love of the beautiful peony flowers today, one thing for sure the very hint of their spicy odor can transport me back in time. Memories are often brought to mind by odors. Sometimes it’s not a particular memory, but just a good feeling. Smelling peonies makes me remember an innocent time when the sun was shining and life was easy. But I also have a tragic memory connected to the peonies when there was a death in my family and the coroner who came to pick up the body drove over the peonies that were in full bloom. There was something so incredibly sad about those crushed flowers.
Those kind of memories, both happy and sad, burrow deep in our minds. As a writer, I have to find a way to pull readers into my stories, to help them feel that sadness or joy, to put in images or sensory touches that the reader can recognize and relate to because he or she has seen or perhaps smelled something the same.
Fragrances awaken memories in our hearts. It’s good to remember that while you’re writing and take a sniff or two of whatever might be there in the scene you’re setting. I don’t know that I’ve ever written the fragrance of a peony into any of my stories, but there are some peonies in the yard down in my Rosey Corner stories. So maybe that fragrance will help me tell a part of the story someday.
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Thanks for reading and I hope you have many pleasant fragrant memories.