catch your breath

I really enjoy the moment when I step outside and walk down my street, breathing in the chilly air and relishing the remaining days of fall. It's a good reminder that wherever I am, I need to sometimes pause in what I'm doing and just take a breath and enjoy the present. One of the houses a little ways down has some fantastic rose bushes growing almost onto the sidewalk. On one of my walks an old man walking in front of me completely stopped in his steps to smell a rose, then took even more time to go out of his way to smell another rose deeper in the hedge. I had never seen someone do that before. It seemed almost gutsy in this age where we have to seem busy and productive and always going somewhere. But this man was completely comfortable and unself-conscious in interrupting wherever he was going to enjoy the beauty and scent of the flowers.