Always Stop to Smell the Roses (Even When you’re Late)
This is part 3 of a 3-piece series. Read part 1 and part 2 to get caught up to speed.
Am I actually advising you to stop and smell the roses, even when you’re in a hurry? Yes, I am!
We’ve discussed walking a different route for a new, broader perspective. We’ve explored lifting that gorgeous chin of yours up to expose yourself to the beauty and inspiration happening above your eye level. What about that saying “stop to smell the roses”?
Who even does that anyway? Isn’t that, like, something only children do? Do you ever see adults strolling down the street, noticing a rosebush, stopping dead in their tracks, turning their body, and bending over to smell a rose?
Personally, I don’t see people doing this much. Or maybe ever. But if you’ve ever passed me on one of my walks, it’s highly probable that you’ve seen me do this.
The reason I do this is simple: I never grew out of this habit since I was a kid. And I’ve gotten so much value from this practice as an adolescent and now as an adult.
Benefits of stopping to smell the roses:
- It keeps your curiosity and imagination alive.
- It brings you back to your youth.
- It’s a momentary connection with pure beauty.
Some roses smell good – and some don’t!
Did you know that? If you don’t stop to smell the roses, you wouldn’t have any idea. And get this — some roses on the same bush may smell good while others don’t. Some rose colors generally smell better than others. I’ve found that pink and orange roses are some of the most consistently pungent colors of roses. Purple roses are hit-or-miss — some purple roses I’ve smelled made me drool. And oddly enough, many white roses smell kind of like cinnamon.
Roses that don’t smell good don’t smell bad (unless they’ve started to die). They just don’t smell like anything. But don’t take my word for it — go smell the roses for yourself! And smell all of them, because one rose doesn’t speak (or smell?) for all neighboring roses. And since a scentless rose is the worst thing you could encounter on this exploration, what do you have to lose?
The mere wonder of this phenomenon always sparks my curiosity. When I pass a series of rosebushes, I get excited. I think, “I wonder which one of those roses smells the best.” And I know that even if you don’t smell roses quite as religiously as I do, you’ve smelled a rose before. A good-smelling rose emits a scent so enchanting, it’s almost as if it has healing properties. I’ve admittedly eaten rose petals hoping that they would taste like they smell (spoiler: they don’t).
The point here is to engage with nature a bit. Allow your curiosity to be sparked, and lean into it. Permit yourself to wonder how that rose smells, and then find out!
Smelling roses brings you back to your youth
Remember when time was limitless? When a 30-minute drive felt like a full-day venture? When you played outside for hours on end and your parents had to remind you to eat because you were so lost in the moment?
Childhood is ultimate presence. No anxiety of what’s to come, no nostalgia or depression from remembering the past. Over time, the weight of the world and our cumulated experiences rob us of this natural bliss.
Stopping to smell the roses is a simple but powerful life hack to counteract aging.
When I lived in Chile, a manager on my team and I took a day trip to Viña del Mar for some business meetings. We were already running late as we hit traffic leaving Santiago, and we had to park several blocks away from where the meeting took place. As we speed-walked up the boulevard, a bright pink rosebush caught my eye. It was maybe two yards away from us. I stopped and turned towards it, and summoned my business partner to come to it with me.
“Uh, Shelby, we’re already late to the meeting…” he told me, apprehensively.
“I know, but don’t you wonder how that rose smells?” I responded.
Perplexed, but curious enough, he followed me. We each shoved our faces into one of the roses on the bush and breathed in deeply. Upon the exhale, we both let out a pleasant “Ahhhhh.”
“That smells amazing,” I commented.
My business partner, suddenly enamored, could not stop smelling the rose. Then he exclaimed to me, “Shelby, what have I been doing my whole life?! When is the last time I stopped to smell a rose? This is absolutely beautiful!”
While I don’t want to encourage you to discount the importance of punctuality — especially in business — there is an important lesson here. If you were already going to be late, what’s one more minute, when the upside is so high? This is one simple way in which we reclaim our youth. Stopping to smell the roses is an act of ultimate presence that you could choose to engage in, or you could pass up the opportunity. I encourage you to sacrifice a moment of your busy life to stop and smell the next rose you see. You may find that you feel lighter, more cheerful, and even more youthful.
A momentary connection with pure beauty
To revisit the saying, it goes, don’t forget to stop and smell the roses. In this phrase, we have the verb stop. To stop and smell the roses takes voluntary action. It means drop everything else you’re doing, stop dead in your tracks, and smell that rose.
This conscious decision to cease all other things and connect with nature is revitalizing. Again, it is an act of ultimate presence; a moment of connection with one of the natural beauties of the world.
Zoom out for a second and think about roses. They are, almost objectively, beautiful to look at. They come in many different varieties of colors. And they might smell exquisite! (They might not.) They serve a biological purpose in the ecosystem. I invite you to ponder this. What would a world without roses be like?
Because we have always had roses, this is not something we think about often. Arguably, we take roses for granted. But imagine if they were to suddenly disappear. Would you miss them?
Make the conscious decision to stop. Stop what you’re doing the next time you see a rose, and when you smell it, appreciate its existence. It doesn’t have to be so beautiful, soft, and pungent. But it is. And you have the opportunity to connect with that beauty in a momentary intimacy, just about whenever you want.
Still not convinced?
Even if you don’t categorize yourself as a nature lover, the benefits of appreciating nature spill over into business, relationships, and emotional wellbeing. There are a plethora of lessons to be gleaned from nature, if we were to only:
- Walk a different route
- Look up
- Smell a rose
Choose to see more, to seek other perspectives. Choose to try something new, even if it makes you uncomfortable. For just a moment, forget the fear of “looking silly” by burying your face in a rose. See how it makes you feel.
I’m not saying you need to smell every rose you see – that might not be very time efficient. But I do encourage you to sprinkle these practices into your daily life. Watch yourself grow like the plants around you.
And if someone asks you, “Why would I stop to smell the roses?” I would respond with another question: “Why would you not stop to smell the roses?”
Enjoy the wide array of sensations that can be stimulated through nature. Roses are more than beautiful to the eye.
To quote the undying words of a curious character, Ferris Bueller:
Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!