Smelling the Roses

It's a bit late in the year to be taking time to smell the roses though the principle works all year round. The idea isn't even confined to roses, nor smelling for that matter.

Last week I had to be at a different location than normal for a class I'm attending and I had to ride there with a fellow student.  To avoid keeping him waiting I went out on the front deck a few minutes early with the things I had to take with me and sat in a rocking chair to wait. The day had hardly started, the early morning sun was shining through the leaves and the air was fresh. For those few minutes it was bliss.

So often we are, or at least I am so busy that I don't stop to sit and do nothing more than 'be'. And just being is remarkably good for the soul.

Life can be hectic at times, or at least the list of things calling for our attention can make life seem hectic. We follow along with this apparent predicament and before long we run out of resources, be it daytime or energy - often both. Not surprisingly we rarely run out of  'to do' list.

Perhaps the trick is to push smelling the roses, or in my case observing the sunshine, a little further up the 'to do' list. Maybe even to the top. Five minutes spent doing nothing - other than being still and contemplating the good things in life - will hardly be noticed in the grand scheme of the day. We can wait that long in line to be served with coffee. On the other hand, the benefits of spending, investing even, five minutes in our own well being will definitely be noticed over the course of a day.

Perhaps it really is time to pause and smell the roses.