Petrichor: The Fresh and Pleasant Smell of Rain - Greek
Living as a spirit close to the rain, and vitality of senses for creativity
There are particular places, people, and situations where rain naturally suits.
Rain suits England, for example, or Scotland, but South Africa is not her place. Safari landscapes would probably seem exotic and romantic under showers, but rain is the queen of the north, adorning the meadows and gloomy forests. She would feel homesick elsewhere.
Then, some situations desire rain. Rainy days offers the perfect mood to suffer love pain to the fullest.
Rain is an unusual companion. In the warmth and optimism of the sun, the pangs of love and the agony of separation are unbearable and unbecoming. However watching the rain with a cup of tea or coffee goes well with your crushing, grayish melancholy. You can either stare blankly at the show of rain, or remember your memories and cry your heart out, or feel as if the rain is washing your heart and prepare for the sunny days ahead.
In times of pain, you may go for a walk in the streets or meadows where wetness is guaranteed. You can cry in peace, nobody sees you're crying since the rain will be blamed for the tears washing your face. As each drop hits your face, hands and body like a nail, it becomes easier to suffer. Already like a wet rat in rags from the pain of love, your insides and outsides become one, and you sink deeper and deeper into the depths of depression, until unable to descend any further.
Even pain is better suffered in harmony. Perhaps life is looking for symmetry.
And, some people are well-suited to the spirit of rain. Juliette Binoche is one of them. Even when she smiles, the hidden sadness in her gaze, her slightly embarrassed demeanor, and her beauty reminds us the mist of rainy days.
Or consider the famous scene in My Neighbor Totoro, Miyazaki's popular film. The girl and Totoro, the film's cute but huge neighbor creature, wait in the rain in silent solidarity for the girl's father to come. Rain heightens the tension in the scene in which Totoro's presence, although being a stranger, comforts her.
Even if you are not melancholy, even if you are happy, sometimes you can miss the rain, and then that smell that comes to your nose, fresh and awakening. As every smell does, it evokes memories, good and bad, and drags you into nostalgia.
Every smell tells a tale. If only the audience could feel the smells while watching a movie. I would love to smell in scenes when someone is cooking in the kitchen, boiling sauces, baking cakes, and also in scenes where it is raining.
The fresh and delicious smell rising from the grass when it is raining is called petrichor in Greek.
Kudos to the Greeks for this authentic word they gave the world!
Being a keen observer ranks first among the advice offered to people whose jobs need creativity, particularly writers. Observation should perhaps be one of the first qualities of a writer, second only to being a good reader. But why just the eye?
All the senses are vital for creativity, not just the eyes.
A smell can take you to memories that you would never remember otherwise, and from there it can lead you to different dreams and eventually to a story, a novella, or even a novel.
And touch? I suggest you close your eyes for a few minutes and try touching different things in your room. Just touch, and live those few minutes just at your fingertips, away from the observation of the eyes and therefore from automatic judgments. During those minutes, memories, desires, and emotions will flow.
What a joy to be in pursuit of such beautiful moments and words as a usual mission!
Have a great weekend!
Till next week,
— Gulsun
We are made of stories—that is, of words.
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