Thursday, November 09, 2006

Two writes don't make a wrong.

Yeah, more that feels right to write about! In a recent (moments ago) comment to the last post, Minka pointed out...

"There are people who look at the sky and smile right back at it, [then] pick up a flower and put it in their button loop...you just have to look really hard to find them."

This is absolutely true! And it made me immediately think of a number of times, while working in the U.S., I literally stopped to smell the roses (flowers) and someone was shocked. It made me laugh each time! But I swear that the simple act of taking a step sideways and bending over, just to sniff a freshly-bloomed flower, was unusual in both act and thought.

While I may have worried some of my coworkers (for reasons I hope never to understand) it was a double blessing for me. Those work times were long, hot, high pressured, and really challenging. Work to the exclusion of all else. So the chance to not only "stop and smell the flowers" but also to laugh out loud was a soul building moment in a soul destroying time and place.

At times I really truly disliked the work I was doing and where I was doing it. (I was homesick.) But after it all, I remember the warm mornings, the squirrels and chipmunks acting like idiots, and the flourishing of flowers all around, from every garden, potted plant, and road side.

That's reason number 387 why you should stop and smell the roses from time to time. Because in the end, beauty in sight and smell will be remembered long after the hardships and toil.

2 comments:

Minka said...

Roses smell particularly nice after it has just rained.
It is nice to make people´s hea dturn and look at you in a weird manner...
it is becuase tehya re jealous and wish they hadnæt lost the ability to take pleasure in the simple things of life.

I Dive At Night said...

Minka, Sometimes people (especially Americans) need to be re-taught, or even taught, the special parts of life. They've heard the saying but really truly honestly haven't seen it done.

You live a beautiful life in Iceland, and I suspect you know it! :-)