Spiritual Direction time begins with lighting a candle to be reminded of the Light that is always present in the darkness, and then a time of silence. In my most recent visit there were not pictures but rather a blank page in my vision. Susan invited me to sit with that and be in a place where I felt total peace and safety and see how Jesus would come and sit with me there.
I saw myself in the completed garden of mia sogno – la casa in Italia. The ruined property in Italia that my heart sees restored and useful and alive with pouring life into those who come to stay. The whisper that surprised me, as I sat with my eyes closed and waited was the fragrance: lemons, oranges, and fresh produce. At last I can identify the fragrance of life – in the scent of what grows and what nourishes, what blends and can be created into something exotic and wonderful! This was very exciting. And why should I be surprised that it was a scent that relates to my passion for creating in the kitchen.
God knows that my heart and mind can always hear, and remember, when I am shown colour or scent. Why is it that scent is the most powerful memory trigger we have?
Cinnamon buns baking in the oven in the early morning draw sleepy guests into the kitchen to investigate. Sautéing onions mid morning, as part of a lunch dish, will draw them in a coffee break to inquire what is happening. Surely it reminds them of someplace in time.
In the last few weeks I have had a desire for food that is cooked slowly, bringing fragrance through the house so that you are tantalized by it all day. I picked up the ingredients for this dish, refrigerated them overnight so that I could begin first thing in the morning.
The finely chopped bacon, diced carrots and onions simmered together then were set aside. Their blend now floated through the house. The lamb shoulder chops were seasoned with salt and pepper, thyme and Dijon mustard adding their scent. The bacon, carrots and onions, as well as chopped turnip, joined the meat in the pan, and then all was covered with red wine and simmered to reduce it. Oxtail soup and fresh lemon juice, and then potato wedges were the final ingredients before the lid went on the pan so it could simmer slowly for several hours. This scent tantalized me all day long until in the evening, by the fireside, four of us sat with our steaming bowls of slowly simmered comfort food.
Perhaps that is part of it – the scent of food cooking is comfort, and the invitation it offers us to come and be satisfied. When are senses are involved we can engage in living. Shutting down our senses can then be a way we disconnect from being alive. But it seems to me that fragrance brings our other senses into action and we find colour, sound, taste and experience how to feel more richly.
Fragrance is still as strong in the gentle breezes of the night: orange blossoms or jasmine that comes when all is still, the dew or the salt of the sea, even the rain has a fragrance. Our senses are just as alive in the night as in the day, and as I actively wait in this place of “night” at present I find myself becoming much attuned to these things that make us sensual beings that “feel” what we are surrounded by, day or night.
If this is the fragrance that came when I sat in the garden with Jesus then I believe I have just inhaled His fragrance in that intimate moment. The fragrance of LIFE, the fragrance of Jesus – fragrance that comes to give nurturing and life with scent, colour, sound, feel and taste.