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Archive for January, 2011

Oh for a life well lived, that can say “I took my time and enjoyed the little things in life.”  How does one describe the essence of stopping to smell the roses?  How does one portray to another the importance of the little and often overlooked things?  How does one describe at the end of their life the importance of not rushing through life?

My dad had his 102^nd birthday in October 2010.  Being the oldest in the county where he lives, he is interviewed on many occasions.  He is not a talkative man, answers only the questions asked without expounding on any of them.  Naturally I listen for pearls of wisdom I can hold on to.  There are days when I can come away from him with a comical statement I cherish, but most often at 102 he is somber and says, “living this long ain’t all its put up to be!”

(10)  So why do we need to stop and smell the roses as our title says?  If there is one thing I       miss today, it’s the fact that I missed out on a lot of my children’s life due to the fact I       was a working Mom.  Coming home at the end of eight hours work and an hour       commute through the traffic I was exhausted.  So as a mother, I wish I’d have been a       little more ingenious and found ways to make ends meet without me working outside       the home.  This to me is stopping to smell the roses.

(9)  Getting to the end of our life, it is too late to go back and undo or re-do.  Now is the time to slow down and live so there will be no regrets.

(8)  My pastor often ask a thought provoking question that could be irritating on occasion especially when I am at a mediocre place in my life.  “What is your Passion?” he asks.  To which I answer to myself, “I don’t really know!”  I’m sure he wants to hear something that makes us want to get up in the morning.  Something astounding maybe.  However I fear there are times when I realize too late what my passion should be or even what it was.  It is a good question though, which brings me to number 4.

(7)  What is important in your life?  I trust you who are reading this now will not call yourself a workaholic.  Surely you won’t shake your head in shame and say, “I think I am, that is all I do.  Go to work and come home again only to rest a while and start my routine all over again.”  It is so easy to get focused on doing a job until we forget to live.

(6)  I was at the Dentist for some new bridge work a few days before Christmas.  I must add        that I enjoyed the Christmas music this year (2010) more than any year I can remember.        I had to say something concerning how I enjoyed the music, to the tech that was helping       me.  When she said, “It has been playing every day since Thanksgiving.  I have learned to       tune it out!”  To her there was no background noise.  Is that what happens to us       concerning the little things in life?  Our children, our family, even friends have become       like the background noise of Christmas, we tune them out and even though they keep       playing, they keep talking, they go on with their life without much involvement from us.        Often it takes something tragic for us to realize the music was playing all the time and       we had tuned it out.

(5)  A gardener would take the phrase “stop to smell the roses” literally.  You notice I must not be a gardener for actually stooping to smell a rose on a bush is not what my first thought was.  However loving the smell of some roses I will hasten to add walking past a bush of roses is great, but taking time to stop, actually take one of those beautiful roses in hand and bringing it to your nose – there is nothing like it.

(4)  I have sisters whom I would call master gardeners.  Though one has the credentials of a master gardener, the other’s yards prove to me they are equally as talented though without the credentials.  It is said, the phrase stop and smell the roses was a statement between friends with one urging the other to do just that.  “Stop and smell the roses you have created in your garden”.  Often the process of spring and getting the ground ready for our flowers and plants may be so time consuming, we could fail to stop and enjoy the beauty we have been creating.  e.g.  Roses.

(3)  The same statement can be made to Mothers or Fathers who have created children, and are so bent on providing the name brand shoes, the latest in technological toys, laying away for the best school, until the rose of their own making may grow up without them taking time to look into that little face and deep into those eyes and then plant a kiss on the little turned up cheek.

(2)  I have been thinking of another often used phrase of “rushing through life.   With the most time saving inventions in our lifetime, we still find a reason to rush at life.  Experiencing all we can, “for life is short“  we proclaim.  Yes life is short, so if you are going to rush, just make sure you have no regrets at the end of your life.

(1)   For my own sanity I must have a TV fast now and then.  It is very difficult to visit with my husband, children or any other guest when the TV is on.  My husband really has withdrawals when we do this.  We haven’t done it in a while, however I think it is about time for another fast.  In doing so, the house is free of background noise.  We can communicate.  I may even be able to read a book or call an old friend, but for sure it is a time when the heart rate slows, life seems to stop and momentarily at least, no one is making demands on us.  It is great.  After a fast of TV for a week, I feel refreshed and slower somehow, even to the point of speaking to the little snotty nosed kid in the basket at Fred’s. Looking beyond his runny nose to the little angelic face that is wanting a little piece of me, a smile and maybe even a little conversation.  I may not blow my horn at the driver ahead of me who has set through two green lights already!   These are a few of the benefits of stopping long enough to “smell the roses”.

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Perhaps you’re one of those who have never bought your food anywhere except in a grocery store. You are used to buying everything from raw vegetables to toilet paper all in one place. You are used to air conditioned aisles and computerized checkouts. The thought of going to a farmer’s market to purchase your fresh foods may seem like nothing more than adding an extra step to your grocery shopping. Those who shop at farmer’s markets on a regular basis would tell you differently. Below we will list ten of the advantages of shopping at a farmer’s market that you may not have been aware of.

1. Fresh = longer lasting. You may think of the fruits and vegetables at your grocery store as being fresh when you see the produce being loaded onto the displays from crates, but how fresh is it really? Where was it shipped from? Halfway across the country probably. In some cases it comes from another country. It’s been picked, packaged and shipped to a warehouse. Then it is shipped from the warehouse to the grocery stores.

At a farmer’s market you will often see signs telling you when the produce was picked from the farmer’s fields. Usually the signs will say picked yesterday or picked this morning. That is what fresh should mean. Because this food has not spent time in the shipping process before you buy it, the food will stay fresh for that much longer.

2. Taste. This is one the biggest reasons people buy produce at farmer’s markets. The difference in the taste between the tomatoes, carrots and strawberries found in a farmer’s market compared to what you would buy in a grocery store is hard to believe until you actually eat one right after another. Their just seems to be much more flavor in the locally grown items.

3. More than vegetables. If you think all that you’ll find at a farmer’s market is vegetables, you’re quite wrong. In addition to the vegetables you’ll often find fruit, flowers, preserves, herbs and farm grown pork and beef products.

4. No need for reading labels. We’ve become accustomed to reading labels to find out the details about what we are buying in the grocery store. No need for this at the farmer’s market. If you have any questions about what you’re buying, you can simply ask the vendor selling the products. They’ll be able to tell you where and how the produce has been grown and what the animals graced on for the meat products.

5. Variety. Yes, you’ll find a variety of different products but the variety goes beyond that. Instead of simply finding ‘carrots’, for instance, you may find many different varieties of carrots. Even purple carrots can be found in addition to the traditional orange ones. Many different varieties of tomatoes, corn, squash, onions, beans etc.

6. Quantity. If you are looking for large quantities of produce for canning or freezing, the farmer’s market is the perfect place to shop. Many fine restaurant’s do their shopping for produce at farmer’s market for this reason, in addition to the high quality of products to be found.

7. Support local growers. By shopping your local farmer’s market, you are putting money back into the local economy and assisting your local growers in their ability to continue providing their products to you.

8. Learning experience. The vendors at a farmer’s market have a wealth of information about their product that they can share with you. They can explain the difference between the different species of a product such as which tomatoes are best canning and which are better eaten fresh. Often times they can also give you new ideas and recipes for the preparation of their produce.

9. Organic food without organic prices. In order for food to be labeled as organic, farmers are required to follow certain procedures and have those procedures documented by government agencies. Many times you will find that much of the food sold at farmer’s markets is grown organically even when it isn’t labeled as such. The only way to know for certain is to ask the growers about methods used on their farm.

10. Community. As you begin to make the farmer’s market a regular part of your shopping routine, you will begin to get to know the different growers and perhaps some of the other patrons shopping there. The atmosphere itself is much relaxed and conducive to building relationships between growers and their customers.

In these days where we spend so much time rushing from one place to another looking for convenience in everything we do, the farmer’s market is great place to slow down and make some wise and healthy choices for our families.

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