Adventure #7: Official Stop and Smell the Roses Day

Don 't hurry. Don't worry. You're only here for a short visit. So don't forget to stop and smell the roses.  ~Walter Hagen

I created a holiday when I was a sophomore in high school. Its intent was to get my best friend to take a break. He was quite uptight, especially when it came to school work. I was attempting to prove to him that there were a few things more important than straight A's; that it was acceptable to relax once in a while.

With that in mind, this year's Stop and Smell the Roses Day was an adventure to be sure but it didn't fit the exact essence of the day. I loved every minute of it. Even the: "We're just sitting here basking in the sun. Doesn't this count as Stop and Smell the Roses Day?" No, no it doesn't. We were in the midst of hosting 7-hour long moving sale that had started at 7 a.m.

When a person stops to smell a rose, what goes through his or her mind? I can tell you what it's not...it's not the thought of every item on a to-do list. It's not that the lawn needs to be mowed or the car needs an oil change or that the world might stop if I don't keep it moving.

None of that matters! In that aromatic instant, a simple beauty and an excellent fragrance is the whole world! The person holding that rose is appreciative of that uncomplicated moment.

So today, I spent what little time I had trying to be simple and grateful. And, that is the essence of Official Stop and Smell the Roses Day...it is not doing nothing, like I once tried to explain it. However, it is an attempt to bring beauty into an unfortunate world while living simply in complicated times. It's a push for slowing down, even stopping to at least smell a rose.

Adventure #6: Leaving

“You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you'll never be this way ever again.”  ~ Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

I was wrong to be sad about change but I was also right. Because I wanted you to know that you mean something to me, I tried to express that our time here is and was worth remembering. Yes, there will be more great times - together and apart - I hope and pray for that. I know our futures are bright! I just needed you to know that you'll always mean something to me.

I am sad...but you'll always be a part of who I've come to be. That's what I wanted you to know.