Take time to smell the roses means different things to different people. Even though we’ve heard that phrase for many years, I think most of us are still too busy to do just that.
Some of the things it may mean to different people is to take time for family, friends, gardening. A stroll through the park with a spouse or loved one. Take a vacation. If you don’t like your job, take some classes and get a better one.
I work two jobs and have done so for about fourteen years or so. My children are grown, but still living at home. Even though it seems like I never have time to get everything done, there’s always something to do, I still take time for family. My family (mother and siblings) live mostly in the area and we spend a lot of time together. Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, and many of our nations holidays. It’s always a task to get those days off as one of my two jobs is open every day but Christmas.
For me, I think smelling the roses would be visiting old friends. For whatever reason, we think we have a lifetime left to spend with those we’re close to. Some years ago, probably about ten, I decided that I wanted to spend time with a girl I worked with in one of my first jobs, thirty years ago. She had married my first cousin and moved to Texas, I eventually moved back to Michigan. She rarely came to visit her family and when she did we talked about getting together sometime, but never made it a priority.
A few years later she died from congestive heart failure. It was a shock to all of us as she was in her mid to late forties. Last Monday another friend died, someone I saw fairly regularly, but still someone I had planned on spending more time with. I figured that I was hopefully retiring from at least one of the two jobs in two years and could at that time spend time with her along with anyone else.
Now I see that I can’t wait until retirement. I need to take the time to smell the roses, by taking the time to spend with my friends as much as possible now, as we’re all getting older and none of us know how long we will live.
So take time to smell your roses, be they in your actual garden, your family, friends, or a better job. Enjoy your life now and make the most of it now, for when it’s over there will be nothing you can do about it.
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