The Unifying Power of Scent

How a memory-laden candle is bringing me closer to mom this Mother’s Day.

A familiar scent has the potent ability to make us pause, dispatching treasured memories, and awakening all of our senses. The place that prompts this reaction for me is the beach. Soooo many childhood memories spent on the shores of Long Island come flooding back when I inhale the heady fragrance of the coastline. One of these scent memories that immediately springs to mind is the anticipation I felt at spending an entire day with my elegant mama on the beach, always with a cooler packed with summer-specific sweet juicy peaches and thirst-quenching watermelon. 

But my most cherished memory of all is the hours on end we’d spend sitting in the sand as the waves crashed at our feet building drip sandcastles together. Yup, that was our thing, well, it was her thing that she taught me—a tactile tower that was cumulatively built through wet sand slowly dripping through our pinched fingertips forming pointy gaudy-like structures. It was always a race to see how tall we could make them before a wave came and took them away, only to begin our build again. Time stood still and nothing else mattered. There was nowhere else to be or to go except to be present in playtime (and I suppose design time) with my favorite human—my mama! 

I mean, is there any better memory than something this pure? I can still remember how the gritty sand felt on my sun-kissed skin and how the salty sea air lingered in my hair, but most of all how special those memories are in my heart, and how sometimes all you need to bring you back there is a memory-laden fragrance. If I am completely honest it makes me a little emotional (or melancholy) that this is going to be the first Mother’s Day in 45+ years that I will not be together with my mom as she moved to Florida a few months ago. Since I won’t be celebrating Mother’s Day with her, I wanted to find a way for us to feel connected even if we can’t be in person. 

When I was introduced to the Maison Margiela Replica Scented Candle in Beach Vibes I knew I could bring us together via the unifying power of scent. This year, I’m sending this illuminating candle to my mom so we can light them together and share the same sensory experience while we reminisce about happy times by the beach over a video call. I’m so grateful for these olfactory reminders and their power to connect us with treasured memories from our past.