By Our Scent …

… “a cat has been here” said my estate agent friend. We couldn’t see any cat, there were no droppings and every thing was as we left it. I wasn’t sure what he was on about. “I can smell cat” he said, a cat was here. He pointed to the cat flap at the bottom of the door and he said that the cat must have come in at some point to warm itself. I felt that was truly interesting, if the cat had sprayed some perfume on (I know they don’t do that!) or rubbed body with another animal, maybe it would have been more difficult to tell.

Animals use smell, scents to send messages, to mark territory, to attract mates, to lead other members to them, to fend off predators etc. Some have a particular strong sense of smell and use it accordingly. Human beings have their scent as well and the sex hormone, pheromones is well known. Some people prefer the natural smell of another rather than the pefumed or deodourised smell. I guess every now and then we have been guilty of over doing the good old bottle of our preferred Eau de Toilette. I love perfume and I have a few that I am partial to, however I believe there is a place for allowing our good clean self be, and allow the natural scent of our being be. I believe our natural scent is representative of our true self, who we really are and as animals go around with their natural scent allowing others to locate them, I believe as human we can learn a lesson to apply in our lives.

We must allow the world to smell our very own scent, to see who we are, allow our very own light to shine, our very own voice to be heard, and by so doing, our very own tribe will locate us, because they can smell the scent, see the light, hear the voice they know and understand. But when we try to be what we are not, when we don’t respect our own individuality and try to be like others in order to fit in, we muddle our own identity, our own essence and we loss out, we have layered all kind of smell on top of our own and no one knows who we are or what we stand for. The light we shine is not our light and it attracts the wrong kind of people, the voice we speak with is confusing and nobody hears it (now or then) or we end up attracting sheeps that do not belong to us and we wonder why there is confusion in the fold. Most time it is because we do not have the right sheeps, we have lit a strange light and we and the people with us are consumed, we have released a muddle up scent and we have muddled-up people around us living a muddled-up life.

One ask “what happens if I release my scent and people find it offensive?” My response is “welcome to the real world!” No smell is universally embraced! In some cases a lot of people will even find it offensive, but that still is not a good enough reason to mask our scent. The skunk is one of the smelliest animal and he still goes around strutting his stuff. The point is when he finds his tribe, his fellow skunks, they are not offended as they all smell the same. No one hates himself yet. To be honest, most of those that find the scent unpleasant are predators. Possibily, the quickest way to get rid of those that do not belong in our lives, the predators, leeches, vampires, unsavoury characters etc is to just release our scents, be our true selves and they can’t hang around for long. So my advice is release your scent, find your tribe, find your fellow ‘smelly’ buddies.

Let us be crystal clear about who we are and live proudly that way. Someone once said, “but when I speak as me, and release my voice as it came, not a single sheep turned up, when I shone my light as it is, no one saw it, when I release my scent, not a single female or male or anyone for that matter showed interest” and for that reason they change their voice to the voice of the people they live amongst, and lit the light of the people they know and assumed the scent of the people in their midst, and by doing all of these they become ‘recognised’ and got the desired ‘likes’, but what a fallacy!

The simple truth is that our tribes are not always near by, our sheeps are not always within immediate hearing distance. Our light might not yet reach our target. Light still travels and we must allow it to do its journey. What great injustice we do to ourself and to those we are called to, when we cease to operate as who we truly are. We rob the world of the uniqueness of our being that can not be found anywhere else.

Sometimes our true tribe are not anywhere near us. The fact that we are born into a family does not make the members of the family our tribe. Some people have little in common with members of their family. In our church, mosque or other religious group we might not exactly fit in. Our current friends might not even be our true tribe. Our neighbours, colleagues, schoolmates, etc might not be it either. Sometimes our tribes are not even born yet and might not be born until we are gone. ‘So what do we do’? You ask. We must continue to speak, to shine the light, to drop the scent, and when we are gone, the messages we left will be found and do the work it needs to do. The people that need to find the message will find and use it accordingly. Some people do things atimes and it seems pointless, nobody acknowledges, respect, validates or take interest in what they are doing. But what I believe is that if we remain faithful to the prompting of our inner being and we make our voices heard, shine our light and drop our very own scents. The very earth that we dwell on, will bear witness, our very soul will bear witness and He that sent us will bear witness and whether in our life time or after, our sheeps will hear our voice and our tribe will find us.

A number of us have been blessed and enriched by books that were written well before we were born, music that were produced before our time. Archaeology findings have unearth numerous things that have been tremendous blessing to current generation. Our callings are not just to here and now but to all that will at some point have the benefit of encountering our very true essence.

So for that very reason, be you, do not dilute your essence, scent. Let those in the know sniff the air of the world we dwelt in and without hesitation be able to say ‘so-and-so’ was here!

By your very own scent, be known!