Ooh ooh, that smell…

It’s too bad you can’t smell my fingers. Hey! That’s not what I mean. My hands actually smell like fresh herbs that Jon and I picked from our exchange garden and turned into an herb and garlic stuffing for tonight’s pork tenderloin. It struck me as rather hilarious that the herbs we found outside were parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Oh, and chives, but that doesn’t fit into the song. As were were washing and chopping, I realized that I’d been too busy back in the States and hadn’t been able to slow down enough to appreciate the small things that make me happy. The smell of fresh herbs on my skin is something I remember my mother teaching me about when I was Sam’s age, and it still makes me feel relaxed and centered. I must have passed it down to my kids without realizing it, as I just dug Sam’s old sprig of lavender out of my purse yesterday. He’d found it when we went to Styrsö and had rubbed on all of our hands and arms to make lavender perfume. One thing that’s been blaringly obvious on this home exchange is that I need to slow down. Life really is too short to spend it in a blur.