Was it last year or the year before?

I do not remember.  It does not matter.

But it was the holidays, and holiday items adorned the shelves.

It was just the grocery store.  Not much of a place to have a moment. But you can really have a moment anywhere.  And it can be with anyone, or anything. It is just an idea turned to feeling morphed into a psycho-emotional totem.

After strolling up and down the aisles of the store we arrive at the last, and that is where it happens.

It is the smell that captivates first.  They say olfactory memories are strong, and I know from experience how the right scent can touch your soul.

The soaps always smell so good. And here, at the end of the grocery store, the place where most people finish their shopping you file past the pharmacy and personal care products, and at the end-cap that pretty much everybody will walk by is the display of artisan soap.  Where all can smell.

Captured by the first waft, it became an adventure to sample the many smells, and choose one to be mine, for a while.  It was some concoction meant to evoke memories of the holiday season, and breathing it in felt like winter joy and a hug.

And, to have discovered such a simple joy.  Picking a new bar of soap every once in a while could be a thing.  Something to wait for, to save up for, and then to get to peruse the perfumed aisle again the in some other time.  It wasn’t just a bar of soap, it was an experience and, somehow, a bit of hopefulness and something to look forward to.

I must have been seen.

Someone else must have seen my joy.  They said they were trying to help.  They bought 20 bars of soap.

I will not have to make a choice for years.