Aromatherapy....in a sense (scents)
What do you think of when you hear the word "aromatherapy?" Personally, it takes me back to the days when I worked part-time in a health food store during my college years. I recall selling countless bottles of ylang-ylang (or something like that), lavender, patchouli (yuk!), vanilla, or eucalyptus. I remember the tiny clay burners to which you add these fragrant oils, which will then help fill your home with a powerful fragrance that was supposed to create a certain mood for its inhabitants, be it calm, relaxation, or energy.
I don't like these forms of aromatherapy....I think many of them just simply stink, to put it bluntly. I like the subtle scents of candles or a well-made perfume, but I have to admit that, though I'm a female, I do leave Yankee Candle stores with a splitting headache after just 5 minutes of shopping.
Smells take us back. It's true. You walk into a room that smells like chocolate chip cookies or brownies, and you remember Mom's treats that she used to bake for you when you were home from a long day at school. The smell of fresh paint always reminds me of the first day of elementary school. The smell of gardenias reminds me of summer nights during my childhood....a gardenia bush sat outside of my bedroom window and the wind wafted its sweet frangrance across my nose as I drifted off to sleep, wrapped up in satiny, cool sheets, to the soothing sounds of night crickets.
As a homemaker and a mom (whoa, sometimes it hits me again that I really am these things), I embrace a different type of aromatherapy. You see, as Godly wives and mothers, we are encouraged to provide a safe haven for our families who return home every night. It is up to us to make it a clean, safe, and comforting place. Men may not like to admit it, but it gives them a great sense of pleasure to open the door to wafting fragrances of food cooking, waiting for them. Children love the smell of sugar cookies or even the salty fragrance of homemade playdough....it tells them fun is not far away.
My mom's kitchen adventures often left our home filled with wonderful aromas such as cinnamon rolls, peanut brittle, chicken soup, gingerbread cookies, or brownies. My family in NO way used food as a reward or as an emotional crutch....it was always looked at in a healthy way. But I recall that it made us feel comfortable, at ease, reminding us that "everything is okay at home." Mom was there, and she cared enough about us to prepare delicious things for us to eat and enjoy together as a family. I seek to copy that in my new family now.
It is also nice to arrive at someone's house and have the lemony scents of cleaning products hit your face. It says in an unspoken manner, "Hello. I am glad you are here visiting with me today. I care enough about you and your comfort in my home to clean it for you and make it pleasing to the eye and other senses. Welcome."
It's so hard to forget these extra benefits that come with cleaning and cooking. I often look at it all as just more on my checklist of life....more tasks to undertake, more stress or exhaustion to fill my day. Yet if I remember that it is therapy in a way for my husband and child (who will grow to understand this with age), it makes me more eager to do better. It might go unnoticed to many, but I know it does not within my own home. I can't recount how many times Ken has embraced me and told me how much he appreciates a clean home and wonderful, carefully chosen, and very healthy food to eat. (I know he understands the significance of this....why? Because not just 3 years ago I rarely did any of these things at all....and we were both not any happier or less stressed for it. In fact, leaving those things off of my weekly plate only created more tension, as well as a not-as-hospitable home.)
I want my home to be a sanctuary. It has been given to me by God as a special gift, and I am a steward of it and its contents, as well as its influence. I desire it to be a refuge for the weary, a resting place for the tired, and a pick-me-up place for the downhearted. Smells cannot take the place of kind words, hugs, affection, and Christ-like gestures....but smells can make these things that much more influential and noteworthy, especially to those like me who place such high value on the emotions created by their intoxicating qualities.
(Many thanks to Homebodies e-zine for the inspiration for this blog post.)
I don't like these forms of aromatherapy....I think many of them just simply stink, to put it bluntly. I like the subtle scents of candles or a well-made perfume, but I have to admit that, though I'm a female, I do leave Yankee Candle stores with a splitting headache after just 5 minutes of shopping.
Smells take us back. It's true. You walk into a room that smells like chocolate chip cookies or brownies, and you remember Mom's treats that she used to bake for you when you were home from a long day at school. The smell of fresh paint always reminds me of the first day of elementary school. The smell of gardenias reminds me of summer nights during my childhood....a gardenia bush sat outside of my bedroom window and the wind wafted its sweet frangrance across my nose as I drifted off to sleep, wrapped up in satiny, cool sheets, to the soothing sounds of night crickets.
As a homemaker and a mom (whoa, sometimes it hits me again that I really am these things), I embrace a different type of aromatherapy. You see, as Godly wives and mothers, we are encouraged to provide a safe haven for our families who return home every night. It is up to us to make it a clean, safe, and comforting place. Men may not like to admit it, but it gives them a great sense of pleasure to open the door to wafting fragrances of food cooking, waiting for them. Children love the smell of sugar cookies or even the salty fragrance of homemade playdough....it tells them fun is not far away.
My mom's kitchen adventures often left our home filled with wonderful aromas such as cinnamon rolls, peanut brittle, chicken soup, gingerbread cookies, or brownies. My family in NO way used food as a reward or as an emotional crutch....it was always looked at in a healthy way. But I recall that it made us feel comfortable, at ease, reminding us that "everything is okay at home." Mom was there, and she cared enough about us to prepare delicious things for us to eat and enjoy together as a family. I seek to copy that in my new family now.
It is also nice to arrive at someone's house and have the lemony scents of cleaning products hit your face. It says in an unspoken manner, "Hello. I am glad you are here visiting with me today. I care enough about you and your comfort in my home to clean it for you and make it pleasing to the eye and other senses. Welcome."
It's so hard to forget these extra benefits that come with cleaning and cooking. I often look at it all as just more on my checklist of life....more tasks to undertake, more stress or exhaustion to fill my day. Yet if I remember that it is therapy in a way for my husband and child (who will grow to understand this with age), it makes me more eager to do better. It might go unnoticed to many, but I know it does not within my own home. I can't recount how many times Ken has embraced me and told me how much he appreciates a clean home and wonderful, carefully chosen, and very healthy food to eat. (I know he understands the significance of this....why? Because not just 3 years ago I rarely did any of these things at all....and we were both not any happier or less stressed for it. In fact, leaving those things off of my weekly plate only created more tension, as well as a not-as-hospitable home.)
I want my home to be a sanctuary. It has been given to me by God as a special gift, and I am a steward of it and its contents, as well as its influence. I desire it to be a refuge for the weary, a resting place for the tired, and a pick-me-up place for the downhearted. Smells cannot take the place of kind words, hugs, affection, and Christ-like gestures....but smells can make these things that much more influential and noteworthy, especially to those like me who place such high value on the emotions created by their intoxicating qualities.
(Many thanks to Homebodies e-zine for the inspiration for this blog post.)
Comments