Stop and Smell the Roses

Yo yo! What's up everyone? I know, I know.....it's been a long time since my last post but I'm back.

"What's been happening in your life AR?" Well, a lot to be honest with you. As much as all of you can relate, 'life' all around me has been happening - both good and bad.

In the past 2 months or so, I have lost some people in my life. Not getting into too much detail, a couple of relatives of some close family friends lost their loved ones a month apart from each other. Just this past Friday, I lost a cousin to cancer.

It's been a rough few days, weeks, months dealing with the loss of life - especially for people you love & care about. I know it's made me appreciate every waking moment, every breathe I take, the ability to get up and see the sun, the time to be able to spend with family & friends, the ability to smile and create memories, the ability to live life!

The other day I was taking my dog Chelsea for a walk. What's funny is that she always seems to present to me a "teachable moment" every time we go about our walk. A moment that I could easily apply to my 'busy & chaotic life', which I know most of us live.

This particular day I was thinking that we needed to complete our 30-minute walk in a timely manner - no more, no less. It had to be 30 minutes!

As we walked, I found myself marching in front of her at a steady but brisk pace. I also found myself giving her more tugs on her leash that normal. As I was on that 30-min. pace, she was more on the 60+ min. pace.

"Chelsea, let's go!"

A tug on her leash......then she followed behind.

A few seconds later another tug!

"Chelsea, c'mon! Let's go!"

Again, we marched forward a few feet more. Then another pause.

As I looked back, she was just doing her thing - a thing that all dogs do - sniffing everything!

Why the heck was I so focused on the 30-minute time limit?

What was my reasoning for being on such a tight timed schedule?

It made no sense at all. I mean, this was my personal time. Time spent doing what I wanted to do.

All my dog wanted to do was go for a nice stroll, enjoy the scenery, take in life, enjoy our time together and 'stop and smell the roses'!

You see, everyday we often seem to overlook the SMALL things in our lives that have a HUGE impact. We're always too busy or have no time! We're always on a tight schedule. We seem to have an excuse for not following through. We'd rather create negative vibes with one another, making faces and pointing fingers rather than taking responsibility for our actions, decisions, and choices. Whatever happened to taking the time to talk to someone you don't know? After all, isn't that the way friendships are created? We'd rather make enemies and piss people off rather than embracing the fact that we're all unique & beautiful in our own way and respecting each other for who we are.

Below is a video that I stumbled upon that I think can personally create change for the better of mankind - for creating & establishing wonderful and meaningful relationships - which ties in with the things I just mentioned above. Sit back folks & enjoy these next 12 minutes and 50 seconds. Look, listen and absorb everything this video has to present in hopes that you can create change for your life as well as for someone else.

We all have a story to tell. It's just a matter of sharing it with those folks who are genuinely interested in taking the time to hear it while appreciating the breathe of this so-called thing called 'LIFE'!

And while you're at it, don't forget to stop and smell the roses!

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." - Abraham Lincoln

-AR