Stop and Smell the Roses

          Happy New Year, my friends.  It's a new year, a time for new beginnings.  One of my goals for this year is to really be present for every moment, to relish all that is happening right now.  I don’t know about you, but I tend to lose myself in the busyness that is life.  This holiday season really was an eye opener for me.  I always get so caught up in in the “have tos” of the season.  I have to decorate, I have to buy gifts, I have to fill stockings, I have to bake, and I have to plan the holiday meals.  But, do I really have to do any of those things?  Nope, I really don’t.  What is important to me during the holidays is that they are filled with the people I love.  It is about the moments with my family and friends that we will look back on with fondness…slowing down to gather together as a family and breathe in the beautiful moments.   It is in the presence not the presents!
          And the holidays are really just a magnified representation of our everyday lives.  We often get so busy, so caught up in all we have to do, that we don’t stop to smell the roses.  We miss the beauty of each simple moment.  When I began my journey to healing, to happiness, to myself, I did a lot of reading and researching happiness.  One of the ideas that was presented over and over was how important it is to keep a journal.  So, in my quest to become a great journal writer, I came upon an idea on Pinterest to list 50 things to be happy about.  I began my list which, of course, included the obvious…my kids, my pets, my family, and my friends.  But what really hit my heart, were the less obvious, the simple pleasures like sitting in my kitchen sipping hot peach tea with the door open and the breeze blowing in, the way the sun dances on the pages of my journal as it finds its way through the slits of the blinds, kitty snuggles, comfy pajamas, a hot shower, laughing so hard with friends that I cry, a clean house, and the smell and feel of clean sheets when I climb into bed at the end of a long day.  Life is in these simple yet beautiful moments.  It is happening right here, right now and if you don’t take the time to stop to notice and appreciate these simple moments, you will miss them, you will miss LIFE!
          Cheers to a new year!  May it be a year filled with the simple pleasures of life!  Will you take the time to notice them?