I realize more and more that the Universe is always trying to teach us big lessons about life through the little things. Most of them go over our heads, because we are not looking for them. Sometimes, if you stop to think about why you are doing some little thing, you find the big lesson there.So I was just walking outside the hotel at a seminar I am attending, and I decided to stop and smell the roses. I stopped to smell a few of them, and they smelled quite nice. There was one rose (the one pictured) that caught my eye, although it was facing away from the sidewalk, and was awkward to get to. Something was pulling me strongly to smell that particular rose. I had to be very careful. I had to step off the sidewalk and onto the soil. I had to avoid several smaller thorny plants around it. I had to be very careful touching it, because the branches holding it were covered heavily with very large thorns that were spaced very closely. When I inhaled the aroma of that rose, I was floored. It may have been the sweetest rose I ever smelled. The roses that I was able to easily sniff from the sidewalk did not compare.
The lesson I took from this is that sometimes the sweetest things in life are not as easy to access. Sometimes you have to get off the beaten path, be a little more careful, or put a little extra effort in to find the sweetest rewards in life. But, it wasn't that much more effort. It was a few extra steps, and a little more care. But, perhaps more importantly, you have to trust your intuition. It was my intuition that made me make the extra effort, take the extra care and get into the dirt. If I didn't listen to my intuition, I never would have had that beautiful experience. It was so beautiful that I took the time to write this, even though I am on a tight schedule on my lunch break at a seminar.
Smiling Sweetly,
Alan
