Stop to smell the roses

Stop to smell the roses is something we say to encourage ourselves and others to appreciate the beautiful things in life.

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Phrase: Stop to smell the roses

It’s become a cliché to tell someone to stop and smell the roses.

Life is so busy now, or at least it seems to be.

I suppose people have always been busy; it’s just that the things which occupy our busyness have changed.

Did people ever really have the time to relax and enjoy the small, seemingly insignificant things that greatly enhance the beauty of life?

No, I don’t think so.

There has always been one more task to complete or one more mountain to climb.

When was the last time you watched an ant go about its business?

Here in Kansai, we’ve had a fantastic spring with warm sunny days accompanied by cool evenings.

I wonder how many people took the time to stop to smell the roses as they rushed to or from work.

We don’t have the time anymore.

Heck, even if people do visit a botanical garden on the weekend, it’s a bit of a hassle to get there.

Then, when they are there, everyone is so busy taking photos and selfies to post online that they don’t sit and enjoy the peacefulness of the blooming flowers.

If they did, they’d see an entirely different world.

The flowers – roses included – bloom to attract the bees and other insects to fertilize them.

It’s an orgy of floral procreation going on right under our noses.

Those bees, by the way, reflect our lives if only we would take the time to notice.

While rushing from flower to flower, the bees emulate humans rushing from place to place, running errands all day long.

You know, a bee only makes about a gram of honey during its life.

It takes 12 bees to make a teaspoon of honey, which is about how much I put in my tea every morning.

Don’t be a bee.

Take time to stop to smell the roses.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least a 7th-grade education (age 12).  

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 77.  

The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100. 



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