Stopping to Smell the Roses or Read the Books

For the past year or so, I have walked by this cool little free library that someone set up just a few blocks from my house. Every time I've walked by, I've thought "Wow, that's so cool! I should take a book and bring one back". So this week, I finally did it. The first book I read from the little free library was Bold Spirit; it's about a woman who walked all the way across the United States in the 1890s. The book was completely fascinating and may have even inspired me to make walking across the United States one of my long term goals! There are so many things in life, like the little free library, that I think about doing and intend to do, but never seem to get around to. I think this is exactly what the phrase "remember to stop and smell the roses" is about- not living and working at such a frantic pace that you don't even take a moment to stop and appreciate all the cool things around you. Incidentally, stopping and smelling the roses is something my friend Justin actually did once when we were on a walk, and at that time I had the embarrassing realization that I had walked by that particular rose bush many times and never even noticed it was there. Thanks in part to Justin's inspiration, I've gotten better at taking the time to notice the beauty around me, but clearly, I'm still having trouble slowing down sometimes. The little free library is going to be my rose bush of the year, and I'm making it one of my goals to read at least three more books from it before the end of the year.