Stop and Smell the Roses

You likely have heard that saying more times than you can count. Still, you probably could count on one hand the number of times you were strolling down the sidewalk and actually did stop at a rose bush to take a whiff.

I've often said life gets in the way of living. Everything in our lives piles up if we don't take care of it: laundry, garbage, bills, e-mail.

My weekends usually are filled with activities meant to diminish these piles, but not this one. Going into the weekend, I had planned on doing my usual three loads of laundry, emptying the dishwasher and spending time weeding through the thousands of messages sitting in my e-mail inboxes.

Instead, I stopped and smelled the roses, or tulips, as was the case Sunday afternoon.

A Saturday evening pre-birthday dinner and drinks with friends reminded me of how lucky I am to be surrounded by incredible friends. There were no roses, but I did smell the bouquet of some delicious wine. And I shared laughs and good times and left my e-mail accounts without checking, letting the Viagra spam pile up in my junk folder.

No harm done.

Sunday I quite literally stopped and smelled the tulips at Pike Place Market, where I went to pick up some flowers to make centerpieces for a baby shower I planned. The flowers were the finishing touch I needed to complete the afternoon soiree to honor the upcoming arrival growing inside my best friend's belly.

Another one of my best friends and I joined forces to pull together the party, complete with tender moments. Going in, we were a couple of amateurs when it came to planning such an event. This was our first.

We might not have been expert baby shower planners, but we were experts in what would make the mom to be feel special. Pink tulips were part of that equation.

As we sat around the table with other friends and neighbors, I couldn't help but soak in how special this day was for many of us. Laundry piles were sitting unwashed at home, but I didn't think about it once. Instead, I piled up memories in my mind of how much fun we all were having as sunshine flooded through the windows.

Spring is here. Summer is around the corner, and I was taking time to stop and smell the roses. If you haven't done that lately, you should.