The Unnatural Smells of Nature

This is a weird observation.

However, it hit me profoundly.

As I was walking through the rain forest, the scent of the woods was strong. Mossy, earthy smells. The rain from the day before. The freshness in the air.

I stood quietly, closed my eyes, and breathed deeply, allowing myself to experience this whole act of cleansing and letting my sense of smell explore all the nuances of the rain forest.

When you pay attention, it is surprising what you can smell.

There are layers.

The earthy scent of mud and soil.

The musky, wet aroma of so many varieties of moss dripping from the branches of trees.

The woody scents of the trees, their bark damp, carrying deep notes of age and structure.

And in the background, there is another layer of moisture. Rain. Moving water. A stream. A waterfall. Something that brings a lightness to everything else.

It is a totally sensory experience.

As I stood immersed in it, something odd happened.

Some hikers came up from behind. I moved aside to let them pass.

And suddenly, I was overcome by a completely different scent.

Fabric softener. Dryer sheets. Laundry soap.

I'm not sure which, but it was strong.

It assaulted my senses.

For a moment, it disrupted my connection to the forest with something that felt completely unnatural.

Honestly, I was offended.

As we continued our hike, I kept thinking about what had just happened.

Then another group of hikers passed us.

There it was again.

Laundry fragrance.

In this majestic natural setting, the scent of cleaning products overwhelmed the air for a brief moment.

And something occurred to me.

We have been taught what “clean” is supposed to smell like.

I thought about all the commercials telling us what clean laundry, clean houses and clean bodies should smell like. You know them. We all do.

Over the past few years, I've made a concerted effort to change many of the products we use in our home and on our bodies. Larry's skin allergies first made me more aware of fragrances in cleaning and personal-care products.

Gradually, we changed laundry soap, fabric softener, dryer sheets and household cleaners, along with shampoo, conditioner, face cream, moisturizer, toothpaste, deodorant and shower products. Even scented garbage bags.

As those fragrances disappeared from our own environment, I became much more aware of them elsewhere.

But today, walking through the majestic rain forest engulfed in the scents of nature, I noticed the contrast more than ever.

What we've been taught that “clean” smells like doesn't smell clean to me anymore.

It smells manufactured.

And I found myself thinking about marketing and how easily a scent can be packaged into an idea or an experience.

A company can put the word Rainforest on a bottle and sell us its version of what a rain forest smells like.

But standing there, breathing in damp earth, moss, bark, rain and moving water?

No way.

It's not the same.

I'm not sure how to end this post.

Part of me wants to rage about the chemicals we've invited into our homes in the name of smelling clean.

Part of me wants to urge whoever reads this to look more closely at the ingredients in the products that come into contact with our bodies every day.

And another part of me just wants to express myself and share what I experienced.

A moment in the rain forest when I became acutely aware of the unnatural in the natural.

That seems like enough.