Smelling Wild Elephants

This week we are SMELLING WILD ELEPHANTS

 

This gorgeous elephant is the work of Peggy Krantz. Inquires at krantzfarms@dfn.com.

(Learn About Training Wild Elephant series here)

No I don’t mean US  SMELLING hopefully(although be sure you check out the PS) – but our noses are part of our awareness – to relish the sensation of smell.  To notice. To allow our sense of smell to open the world and ourselves to us in ways we don’t normally acknowledge.

I am a sniffer anyway.  Smell is pretty important in my life and I avoid the smells I don’t like.  Which has me thinking…

Of course it’s smart to walk away from stink.

But if things do stink – must I walk away? Is that my only option?

And if it smells heavenly – like my ocean breeze, like my puppies fur in my face, like my grandchild’s lovely skin at my side – how do I respond?

MY PRACTICE – To notice the smell, to notice my reaction, and to ask “what then?”

I know – she is not wild. She and I looked at each other through the fence at the zoo.

WHAT THEN – is a tool I use for awareness – to take me beyond just the notice…Which is tough enough in our busy lives, but to say -” what then…is there more, does this connect, am I directed”?

Almost every time my “What Then” leads to gratitude for something, which keeps me young, soulful, vibrant, alive and radiant.    Sometimes “what then” leads to action that I would not have taken had I not noticed and listened.

I offer this to all who train wild elephants.

PS  Notes on STINK.  I remember the camping trips – backpacking actually, I used to take with my husband (at the time) and my two teen kids.  We were in backcountry, and sweating like wild animals.  It was so hot and so muggy and we were hiking hard.  So STINK was inevitable.  We turned a rather smelling experience into a contest – WHO COULD STINK THE WORST at the end of the trip.  If you could have smelled the insides of our tents, you would not be my friend, on Facebook, or anywhere else.  Your instincts would have said RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!   Such a silly thing, and yet, a treasured memory.

So the question begs itself – should I always run when it stinks?

About these ads