My daughter’s room smells like bacon. The bathroom smells like whatever my cat just did in its litter box in the next room. And the living room? Well, thankfully it just smells like the air freshener plugged into the kitchen wall.

For some reason I have not figured out in the eight years since we moved into our small ranch, smells don’t stay where they’re supposed to in this house. I’ve just learned to expect the lingering aroma of dinner in my daughter’s bedroom, and suspicious smells in the bathroom are just as likely to have started in the office as anywhere.

The funny thing about this situation is that not only do smells – good and bad, for the record – migrate through walls or down the hall, but they also completely disappear from their rooms of origin. So while you might think my kitchen smells just as strongly of bacon as my daughter’s bedroom, you would be wrong. The kitchen smells like dishwasher detergent.

As I walked down the hall and noticed my house’s quirk [again] a few weeks ago, I started thinking. My house is a lot like my life.

To read the rest of this post, please visit me at (in)courage.