I like the smell of flowers as much as the next person. However, when I think of flowers inside the house, it’s from an aesthetic point of view.

They look nice.

But this morning I had a strangely powerful moment. While doing some pre-dawn yoga, I experienced flowers from a new perspective.

Morning yoga is always a bit foggy for me. It’s the first thing I do after waking up. It’s meditative and slow-moving. The lights are dim at best, so my vision is limited — but my senses of hearing and smell are razor-sharp.

My wife has a lot of plants in our living room. Some bloom strange and beautiful flowers at random times throughout the year. Today, there were two blooming near the front of our yoga mat.

I don’t know if it was their combination or one releasing a more potent scent than usual, but every inhalation stunned me. I breathed deeper and held my poses longer, just to savour the experience.

Until today, I’d never noticed how powerful the scent of indoor plants can be.

It was a nice way to begin the day.