Oh for a life well lived, that can say “I took my time and enjoyed the little things in life.” How does one describe the essence of stopping to smell the roses? How does one portray to another the importance of the little and often overlooked things? How does one describe at the end of their life the importance of not rushing through life?
My dad had his 102nd birthday in October 2010. Being the oldest in the county where he lives, he is interviewed on many occasions. He is not a talkative man, answers only the questions asked without expounding on any of them. Naturally I listen for pearls of wisdom I can hold on to. There are days when I can come away from him with a comical statement I cherish, but most often at 102 he is somber and says, “living this long ain’t all its put up to be!”(10) So why do we need to stop and smell the roses as our title says? If there is one thing I miss today, it’s the fact that I missed out on a lot of my children’s life due to the fact I was a working Mom. Coming home at the end of eight hours work and an hour commute through the traffic I was exhausted. So as a mother, I wish I’d have been a little more ingenious and found ways to make ends meet without me working outside the home. This to me is stopping to smell the roses.
(9) Getting to the end of our life, it is too late to go back and undo or re-do. Now is the time to slow down and live so there will be no regrets.
(8) My pastor often ask a thought provoking question that could be irritating on occasion especially when I am at a mediocre place in my life. “What is your Passion?” he asks. To which I answer to myself, “I don’t really know!” I’m sure he wants to hear something that makes us want to get up in the morning. Something astounding maybe. However I fear there are times when I realize too late what my passion should be or even what it was. It is a good question though, which brings me to number 4.
(7) What is important in your life? I trust you who are reading this now will not call yourself a workaholic. Surely you won’t shake your head in shame and say, “I think I am, that is all I do. Go to work and come home again only to rest a while and start my routine all over again.” It is so easy to get focused on doing a job until we forget to live.
(6) I was at the Dentist for some new bridge work a few days before Christmas. I must add that I enjoyed the Christmas music this year (2010) more than any year I can remember. I had to say something concerning how I enjoyed the music, to the tech that was helping me. When she said, “It has been playing every day since Thanksgiving. I have learned to tune it out!” To her there was no background noise. Is that what happens to us concerning the little things in life? Our children, our family, even friends have become like the background noise of Christmas, we tune them out and even though they keep playing, they keep talking, they go on with their life without much involvement from us. Often it takes something tragic for us to realize the music was playing all the time and we had tuned it out.
(5) A gardener would take the phrase “stop to smell the roses” literally. You notice I must not be a gardener for actually stooping to smell a rose on a bush is not what my first thought was. However loving the smell of some roses I will hasten to add walking past a bush of roses is great, but taking time to stop, actually take one of those beautiful roses in hand and bringing it to your nose – there is nothing like it.
(4) I have sisters whom I would call master gardeners. Though one has the credentials of a master gardener, the other’s yards prove to me they are equally as talented though without the credentials. It is said, the phrase stop and smell the roses was a statement between friends with one urging the other to do just that. “Stop and smell the roses you have created in your garden”. Often the process of spring and getting the ground ready for our flowers and plants may be so time consuming, we could fail to stop and enjoy the beauty we have been creating. e.g. Roses.
(3) The same statement can be made to Mothers or Fathers who have created children, and are so bent on providing the name brand shoes, the latest in technological toys, laying away for the best school, until the rose of their own making may grow up without them taking time to look into that little face and deep into those eyes and then plant a kiss on the little turned up cheek.
(2) I have been thinking of another often used phrase of “rushing through life. With the most time saving inventions in our lifetime, we still find a reason to rush at life. Experiencing all we can, “for life is short“ we proclaim. Yes life is short, so if you are going to rush, just make sure you have no regrets at the end of your life.
(1) For my own sanity I must have a TV fast now and then. It is very difficult to visit with my husband, children or any other guest when the TV is on. My husband really has withdrawals when we do this. We haven’t done it in a while, however I think it is about time for another fast. In doing so, the house is free of background noise. We can communicate. I may even be able to read a book or call an old friend, but for sure it is a time when the heart rate slows, life seems to stop and momentarily at least, no one is making demands on us. It is great. After a fast of TV for a week, I feel refreshed and slower somehow, even to the point of speaking to the little snotty nosed kid in the basket at Fred’s. Looking beyond his runny nose to the little angelic face that is wanting a little piece of me, a smile and maybe even a little conversation. I may not blow my horn at the driver ahead of me who has set through two green lights already! These are a few of the benefits of stopping long enough to “smell the roses”.
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