The scent of safety can be found in the most unexpected places. For me, it came back through a piece of smoked mackerel, a memory of my grandmother’s kitchen and a few words from a stranger in a queue. All during an ordinary morning in the motorhome.
So, I’m living in the motorhome again. The coffee tastes like the usual motorhome coffee, even though it is really just perfectly ordinary coffee brewed in a coffee maker.
🇬🇧 English – you are here
🇸🇪 Svenska – Läs inlägget på svenska → Jag har all tid i världen – om doften av trygghet och en helt vanlig morgon
I slept like a rake – if rakes even sleep.
But the day will come anyway, even after a bad night’s sleep. Today we are going cycling around the village where we are staying. I’m going to try my bike on some slightly more humane cycle paths.
We are at the same campsite as last time – Vita Sandar.
I didn’t know then that this morning would turn out to be about the scent of safety, memories and time.
Salmon swirls that weren’t quite what we expected
Yesterday, on our way here, we stopped at the shopping centre. We remembered that a few years ago Coop used to sell really good little salmon pastries.
But it was a disappointment.
They had shrunk and weren’t at all like they used to be. They had even changed their name to salmon swirls, and they were tiny.
So instead, we bought crayfish and prawns, along with a small smoked mackerel fillet.
And with that mackerel, my grandmother came back to me.
There was almost always smoked mackerel at my grandmother’s house. It was so cosy and so good to sit at her kitchen table, eating mackerel.
When a taste becomes the scent of safety
It is strange how we connect tastes, smells and other things with things that happened long ago.
That first bite of mackerel yesterday – suddenly, it was as though I were sitting at my grandmother’s kitchen table again. The sun was shining through the window and I was eating my mackerel.
The smells from her kitchen came back to me, and in those smells there was nothing but safety.
My aunt’s kitchen had the same kind of smells. Safety and warmth lived there too.
A few months ago, when Simon came home for a visit, he said something that made me think about this. He moved away from home a few years ago.
He said:
– It always smells so good here at home.
I answered:
– Really? Does it? It just smells like usual, doesn’t it?
Because in my own home, I don’t notice that scent of safety that always seemed to live in my grandmother’s house.
But perhaps that was exactly what Simon could smell in our home. The home where he grew up and where he had felt that sense of safety within the walls.
Maybe that is where we can settle and simply be who we are. Perhaps those smells create sensations and memories of being home.
And perhaps being home isn’t only about the room or the house itself.
Maybe we can also feel at home within ourselves.
Well, that turned into a lot of words about an ordinary morning. I had no idea I was going to write about safety and smells.
I thought I was just going to write an ordinary blog post.
I have all the time in the world – a feeling of safety
But there is one more thing from the shop yesterday.
I was standing there holding my queue ticket when a younger guy, who had actually been waiting longer than me, came over and asked where he could get a ticket.
I showed him, and when he had taken one, I said:
– But now this isn’t fair. You were waiting before me, and I’d like to give you my ticket.
Then he said something that simply flowed into me and made me happy.
– No, no, I can’t do that. More people have arrived since you took your ticket, and I have all the time in the world.
And an old piece of knowledge found its way back into me.
Because that is how it is.
Time is the one thing we have plenty of, and time itself is free. We just manage to sell it at different prices and choose how we share our time with others.
He didn’t take my ticket, and instead we had a conversation right there and then.
Think about what can happen when we stop and look back at an event or a moment in life. An entirely ordinary moment while standing in a queue.
Some words, and some people, can make the whole world around us seem to glow.
I have all the time in the world.
What a wonderful feeling that is, instead of constantly rushing past things.
Malix.se on the motorhome during a morning about the scent of safety.
Reflection
It is strange how an ordinary morning can begin with motorhome coffee and a bad night’s sleep and then end up somewhere completely different.
A piece of smoked mackerel suddenly became my grandmother’s kitchen and the scent of safety that lived there. Something Simon said made me wonder what a home actually feels like to someone who grew up there. And a young man in a queue reminded me that perhaps time doesn’t always have to be something we are short of.
Maybe these are the things I need to become better at noticing again. Those small things that happen right in the middle of ordinary life.
Because perhaps that is where life is actually happening.
AHA – Between the lines
This post was really supposed to be about a morning in the motorhome and a bike ride waiting for me.
But between the lines, it is about something else.
About safety that can live in a scent. About how what once felt like home to me may now have become home for my own children. About how a stranger in a queue can say a few simple words that stay with you:
I have all the time in the world.
And perhaps that is what I will take with me on my bike ride today.
I don’t have to rush past everything.
I can actually be there while it is happening.
A few questions for you
Is there a smell or taste that can instantly take you back to another place or another time?
What did safety smell like to you when you were a child?
Have you ever thought about what your own home might smell like to the people who feel that they belong there?
And when someone says “I have all the time in the world” – what happens inside you? Does time feel like something you have, or something you are constantly trying to catch up with?
Feel free to leave a comment and tell me. I like it when my own thoughts get to meet yours.
You might also like
If you enjoy everyday reflections where small moments are allowed to lead to bigger thoughts, you might also like:
Listen to Children – about what can happen when we stop and truly listen.
Safety in Relationships – about safety and what happens between people.
Motorhome, Everyday Life and Reflection – Our First Trip of 2026 – another story where motorhome life and ordinary moments make room for reflection.
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Carina Ikonen Nilsson – writer and blogger
Yesterday has already settled into history, tomorrow is waiting further ahead. But right now – this is where life happens.
Malix / Carina Ikonen Nilsson
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