Stencil

"Some things you can never leave behind.
They don't belong to the past.
They belong to you."
-Rick Yancey

I feel like I wake up and wash my hair in memories.

The fragrance of them lingers around me.

Not a strong, sharp smell, 

but diluted and constant instead.

I wouldn't know who I was or how to act if the scent wasn't there.

Inspired by "Spring's Promise"
by Marjorie Miller Estes

It used to be different.

Like being sprayed by a skunk.

My memories were pungent and I couldn't ignore them.

Simple but effective.
I really like this spread!

But everything fades with time.

It lingers still, but comes in soft waves

instead of crushing blows.

We forget the bad.

It stops existing.

But it was there, and I miss those smelly undertones sometimes.

Because they were there and they were a part of things just as much as the good times.

You learn more from struggle than an easy life.

You learn more from someone else's flaws

than from their good qualities.

It's easy to be nice to nice people.

It's only when the niceness is stripped off

that you learn what you are willing to accept 

and what you cannot abide by.

This is valuable information, I think,

and it tells you more about yourself than it does about the other person.

My favorite smell is wood smoke, 

but it only comes when everything burns.

I wonder what that says about me.

What does it mean that I find beauty in destruction?