World Smell & Taste Day

Today is World Smell & Taste Day.

I haven't smelled a thing since 2009 which means I also do not taste anything besides salty, sweet, sour, bitter - I cannot taste flavors although somehow I inexplicably can still cook well & can tell if a cup of coffee is good or not.

So I thought I'd post this gem today that I doodled years back...which actually wound up being used in a TED talk - you can't make that up, right?

I wish I could impart to those of you with working noses and taste buds what it is like to no longer have those senses.

I wish I could explain that it's like living in black & white in a technicolor world - how I can no longer recall smell-associated memories or make new ones and how I don't know if I smell okay or my house smells okay or what my husband/daughter/dog smells like or what cookies/pies/cakes baking in the oven smell like or what fresh cut grass smells like or crunchy fall leaves. The list is truly endless.

Not having these things - and so so many and much more - anymore has robbed me of an integral and significant part of the whole being alive experience x 10,000.

I struggle each and every day to keep my head above water and not think about all that I've lost while also hoping that there isn't a gas leak or fire because I'd never know. I have special alarms for explosive gases and hope to God they work properly but there's no real way of knowing, ya know?

Anyway, here's the TED talk. You can skip to about the 8:02 mark in case you're so inclined.