HOPE – Stop and Smell the Roses

I was walking through my neighborhood and passed a row of beautiful white roses in someone’s yard. Although I had been hustling along to get somewhere in particular, I remembered the expression, “Stop and smell the roses.” So I bent down to smell them, and to my disappointment, they had no odor. Pretty white flowers, no fragrance at all.

How do you smell roses when they do not have a fragrance? Does this mean we should not stop and smell the roses? On the way back from my walk, I took a different street and passed a different house with a similar row of white roses along the sidewalk. So once again I bent down to smell the roses. To my delight, up came a wonderful, wafting fragrance, the delicious, delightful smell of roses.

The moral of the story is: if at first you don’t get what you’re looking for, keep looking. It is very likely right around the corner, or the next corner.

NEVER GIVE UP. When you don’t get what you want, do not give up. You can feel sad, disappointed, angry, frustrated, or even depressed and helpless. You can crawl in bed, pull up the covers, and feel sorry for yourself. You can say or feel anything that comes up … and then, you can get up and go out there again, looking for those roses.

It’s probably not wise to take the exact same route that disappointed you last time. There is a saying that “Insanity is when you keep doing the same things over and over, and expect a different result.” So, you need to keep your mind open to different approaches. Maybe not the most logical, direct ones you have already tried, if they have not gotten you the results you wanted. But even when you are trying something different, you must also get your mind headed in a different direction. You could walk by the most gorgeous, sweet-smelling roses, but if your head is down and you are mumbling negative comments to yourself, you could easily go right past them, without even seeing them.

So keep walking, and keep stopping to smell the roses, and if there are none on this street, then tomorrow go down a different street. They are out there, waiting for you to find them. Or maybe to plant your own. Enjoy the roses.