Smell The Roses

I have 27 roses in my front yard. I am not sure why I have lately been obsessed with roses but I feel drawn to them. They call to me and over the last three years my husband has been wonderful about patronizing me. As we went shopping and found the plants we wanted he planted them for me and helps with keeping them growing.

It hasn’t been easy. I thought frost got my favorite one this year but thankfully it was just dormant a little longer than I expected. Deer have been snacking on them this year if I don’t put a deterrant around them fast enough. It’s been rather rainy so it has to be applied more often than it would otherwise have had to be.

I was out talking to my roses this weekend when my husband and my niece exchanged glances and whispered to each other they may want to find a number for the guys in the white coats. I was thanking the plants for producing such beautiful blooms. Lovingly I caressed the leaves and the flower petals. I cooed at each plant.

Perhaps I am delusional as they implied, but to me it seems that the plants enjoy the love and attention too. They grow better and the blooms are brighter and happier after I visit them. Some would say that the plants can actually hear you and respond to your loving voice. I’m not sure I’m going to say that exactly, but I do think they respond to the positive energy that I am bringing to them. In return they bring me smiles and pleasure with their loving blooms.

There is an old saying, well worn out by now, which states we should “stop and smell the roses”. The implication is that we need to take time to enjoy life once in a while instead of running around chasing our tails just to live. It is just this that I do when I talk to the plants. It is my time to relax and enjoy the simple things in life.

Some people enjoy working in a garden. They like the feel of dirt under their nails and their hands inside the roots of a plant. They lovingly tend the vegetable garden in anticipation of the harvest in the fall. Or, like me, they spend the time among the beautiful flowers breathing in the sweet scent and admiring the beauty of the blooms.

If you are an empath like me these moments are necessary. They are grounding and healing. They can take whatever stress and negativity that are plaguing me right away. Each empath has to find what it is that heals their soul and refreshes their spirit. There are multiple ways to do it including arts, creativity, sunbathing and woodworking. For a lot of us, nature is our doctor, our medicine. This includes plants and trees as well as animals and sunshine.

But, whether you are an empath or not, we all need to take time away from life to “stop and smell the roses.”

I just took it literally.