On a fall morning, an open door, and the photo I did not take
Stop and smell the roses. It is a common saying, and obviously it is all about stopping, taking in the world, and enjoying the sights and sounds of nature and life.
The golfer Walter Hagen is often credited with the sentiment (although he said flowers not roses), and Mac Davis took the title to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. Neither of them had a patch of goldenrod, though.
Every morning I wake up before the pups and Bill, and I wander around the house. Sometimes I sit on the porch with a blanket and just listen. I love the sound of the breeze in the trees, and the distant sounds of cars heading somewhere, maybe home from work or heading to work. After a while I wander back to the bedroom and read. Then I get up again and make a hot chocolate (the rest of my morning ritual is on the blog).
Then I Passed the Window
Yesterday morning, as I passed by the window, the view took my breath away. I opened the door and marveled at the beauty of nature.
The circle was shining in more ways than one. The goldenrod was glistening as it swayed ever so slightly in the breeze, along with the little purple flowers whose name I have forgotten, like thousands of little glistening pom poms. The morning dew was illuminating them, and the entire circle was backlit by the sun, with the shadows of the pines stretching across it.
Across the way at my neighbors’, one of their trees was covered in yellow, orange, and burgundy leaves. The birds flitted about, and the shadows, or really just the outlines, of bees buzzing around like little fairies created a magical scene.
Stop and Smell the Roses, and Leave the Phone Inside
I stood at the door for over five minutes taking it in. I thought to myself that I should get my phone and take a photo, and then I thought against it. I could never, ever capture this. It was like a painting in technicolor just outside the door. Note: the image above is from a few days ago.
Later I went looking to see whether anyone had studied this, and someone has. Nancy Fagley, a psychology professor at Rutgers, surveyed nearly 250 undergraduates (not my demographic, I will admit) and found that appreciation, which is seeing the worth in something and feeling a connection to it, predicted how satisfied people were with their lives about twice as well as gratitude did. Greater Good Magazine reported on it in 2012. It is a small study that shows a link and not a cause, but I liked it. Fagley also warns that reflection can go rote and get taken for granted, which is the trouble with most advice about slowing down and self care, mine included. So I am trying one small thing, which is learning the name of whatever I have been walking past. I started with those little purple flowers, and they are blue mist flower, a native that bees and butterflies love and that blooms well into fall. I suppose the bees knew all along. Tomorrow’s name will be a different one, so it cannot go stale.
Life asks a lot of us, so stop, my friends, and smell the roses, or the scent of a wood fire on the fall breeze. Take in the shadow and light of the fall sunrise.
What stops you at your own door? I would love to know what you were looking at, and whether you reached for your phone.
I am going to keep up the one small thing this week, a name a day, and I will tell you what I find. I suspect the hardest part will be walking slowly enough to need the answer. Wherever you are, I hope something catches you on your way past the window, and that you let it.
Have a wonderful day, friends.
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