What does it mean to stop and smell the roses? It means to take time out of our busy day to appreciate the beauty of life.
What does appreciating the beauty of life mean? Oh, existential conversation. Bare with me, folks.

I feel appreciating the beauty of life means activating awareness. Ok, guys, lower the chatter. I know awareness is a power word used in every self-help book or new age article. Redundancy is important. Stay with me. Awareness is achieved through observation. Observation becomes perception which is translated into knowledge.

But let’s go back to my latest staple word – perception. Perception is the lens in which one interprets the world – specifically their world – and provides knowledge of what reality is. DAAAAAM, there’s a hell of a lot of lenses out there, aren’t there? Your lens, his lens, her lens, their lenses, and mine – which you know is the right lens to peer through, agreed right, because with a ga-zillion-fucking-billion lenses, aka realities, wandering this Earth it all seems rather confusing, eh?. Come on, join my reality. It’s much more idealistic and easy. Hahaha. I tease. But notice how most people will argue that point. Sigh. You can see this play out everywhere. I’ll just go with the assumption that you’re following along and can see how this works in all relationships, society, etc.

Everyone’s lens is the perfect lens, though. Yes, it is. Even the stinky rapists and muderers out there. It is simply because it is what occurred. What occurred? Well, life, of course. No need to make it more than that. How to deal with that is another topic all together, though, not part of this thought process. So, hold onto your steering wheel and keep treading along with me, if you will.

So, now we are at a place to understand that awareness = knowledge. Right? It’s not a fast track, though, folks. No diet pills out there means no super trains to enlightenment either. However, the ease of which it can unfold or the difficulty in which it doesn’t depends on your desire to give rise to change.

Ok fuck it. The title of this blog is called Stop and Smell Your Children for a reason. The day I wrote I Want and I Can Have I was soaking up every detail of the world outside and inside of me. Time slowed down. I watched a man walking ahead of his daughter holding her lunch bag and her back-pack. I can give you every detail from his head to toes – literally he was wearing chanclas (sandals) and was likely 4 weeks from his last hair trim. His 6 or 7 year old daughter walked about 100 feet behind him wearing her long, dark hair in pig-tails and a very bright, pink jacket – one you would wear in 40-50 degree weather (in South Texas ya’ll, lol). From observing the distance between them, I could infer his gait – his drooped head, contracted shoulders; he was deep in thought and a bit hurried. The energy of his body expressed frustration yet hers was playful delight. She was observing the dew on the grass. I imagine, as I have done before, enjoying the way the sun reflected from the dew. She kicked the grass and then bounced with happiness. As the dad motioned for her to ‘come here’ or ‘hurry up, her facial expression changed and she began to resist her father’s attention. Why? I imagine because it did not match her intention for joy. What did she do? She didn’t move! She didn’t move one inch closer to him! The opposite action of what her dad was requesting. So, I’m sure you can guess the way the scenario played between them. Unfortunately, likely neither of them getting their individual needs met.

The simple act of observing this situation is what brought the aforementioned text into awareness. But it doesn’t stop there. I said that awareness = knowledge, right?. It is what you do (action) with knowledge that makes all the difference. Recently, Sofia and I walked the neighborhood while we waited for her dad to arrive. She walked off the beaten path and landed her two little feet onto some grass. My initial reaction was to request we stay on the sidewalk. It was then the image of the father and daughter along with her expression of joy and ensuing unhappiness swiftly shuttered in my thoughts. I shifted my perspective and followed her lead. Think of what could have happened had I resisted to follow her? Or imagine the beauty created by sharing this moment following my daughter’s need. Two likely very different scenarios, huh?

It’s always those little moments, isn’t it? Those are the ones that can potentially make the biggest impact for anyone – your children, friends, co-workers. This is what awareness is for me. This is what appreciating the beauty of life means to me. Not only my life but others and making it a valuable experience by applying the knowledge gained by observation or interaction. You can’t win the lotto if you don’t play, folks, just as you can’t apply knowledge if the awareness is lacking. So, wake-up, level up, ya’ll. If you don’t know where to start reach out to someone you think can support your start.