the smell of sunshine

 I've always been the type of person to bury my face in things.

In blankets, in stuffed animals, in my own arms, in the arms of others, in my dog's fur. I guess it's a comfort thing, a grounding thing, reminding myself that I am here, on the ground, and not floating outside of my body.

When you have a tendency to bury your face in things, you also get to breathe in the smells of that thing. Cologne, laundry detergent, dirt, sunshine. 

I love the smell of sunshine. It's the smell of warmth. It's the smell of summer (even when it's the middle of winter). We soak in the smell, sometimes without even realizing it, but as you bury your face in your arms, you smell it. Refreshing. Homely. Snug. Yellow. Love. Sunshine.

I've never really been able to describe the smell of the sun well, it doesn't smell like anything else. It just has emotional connotations. 

Chewie soaks up the sun smell well. And when I am sad, as I often am, I find myself hiding my face in his fur. Sometimes he smells like the rain. Or dirt. But that sunshine smell, it reminds me that days are bright and that this too shall pass. 

(You smelled like sunshine, too — even on rainy days — but that's because you felt like the sun to me.) 

monterey - the milk carton kids (this song is the smell of sunshine)