^{Slow down and smell the roses.}

Hey everyone. I’m Sherry Douglas with Heart-Song. We’ve all heard the phrase, “Slow down and smell the roses.” As I thought about that, I was reminded of a story I read a while back about a classical musician, Joshua Bell, who is said to be one of the greatest violinists in the world. He agreed to take part in a social experiment to gauge whether in a public setting and during a hectic time people notice beauty and stop to enjoy it.

According to the Washington Post, in 2007 in a subway, Mr. Bell donned a baseball hat and a t-shirt and played some of the best classical music ever written with his $3,000,000 violin. It’s estimated that thousands of people were in the station that day. A few men stopped for seconds before moving on. Several children wanted to stop to listen and watch, but were urged away by the adults with them. In the 45 minutes Mr. Bell played, six people stopped and listened for a while. He also received $32 in tips from people on the move. On that morning Joshua Bell and his amazing music competed for the attention of busy people, and lost. In other words, the people were too busy to stop and smell the roses.

Would you and I have responded any differently? None of us know, but if I had to guess, I’d say most of us would not. We take our busyness serious, too. We pass by beauty daily; we pass by things that were created for our enjoyment because we’re too busy to stop or to be still.

In the Bible, James 1:17 says, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” Every good thing and every perfect gift from God. Beautiful music. Beautiful flowers. Beautiful leaves. Beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Beauty. Let’s stop and smell the roses.

Live the way you want to be remembered! See you next time.