Smell The Roses
New Foliage
Yesterday was an amazing day outside. In Perth, we are nearing the end of our winter. Now winter here doesn’t even come close to the winters I remember in Michigan where I grew up. Now if you saw the sky yesterday, it was a brilliant blue with no clouds. It spoke of life. I felt like it would be such a waste to not take the time to breathe in some of that fresh air. I remember speaking with a few different patients, just the other day about taking time to ’smell the roses’. We have all heard that expression, and of course the phrase is not literal, as the rose bushes here have all been pruned! But taking it further, taking time to smell flowers, or enjoying a cup of tea or coffee, and just stop and be in the present. We all can let the busyness of life steal away from a beautiful day. I took a photo of my rose bush outside with a new bud growing. This is actually quite significant in my life right now. I have pruned different aspects of my life professionally, in order to have more beautiful flowers result in different areas.
New bud
In my ‘life as a female chiropractor’, that is actually my ’special of the week’. No specific symptoms, but actually acknowledging today for what it is, what it brings. I have a dear friend that reminds me and inspires me to smell the roses as his story is the opposite. He has time, but not the health or ability to move around the way he used to. The reality of my life is that I am able to walk and use my legs to exercise my physical body. This is a gift that we can take for granted as not all people have the physical health. More than a handful of patients brought this theme to their visit, and it was quite exceptional. Wisdom does come with age, but who wants to wait until we are 80 or 90 to realise these things and start living. The time is now - not yesterday, not tomorrow.
“Life is a gift, that’s why they call it the present.”
After I picked up my daughter from school, I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk. She looked at me with a strange look, so I painted a picture of how the walk would be. I explained that it was an opportunity to breathe in some lovely fresh air, have quality time for conversation, and get daily exercise in. The alternative was coming home and diving into the computer and getting on with the usual routine that comes after a normal school day. Well after that walk, she still got her homework done; dinner was still cooked and this blog post was written.
I felt so revitalised after and it was a nice change from the gym which is indoors all the time. Our Spring officially starts next week and with that brings real flowers. Let me encourage you as I will continue to remind myself to stop, and smell the roses…