A Time to Savor

Photo credit: http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/roses-red-white-pink-yellow-flowers-roses.shtml

We've heard the sayings all our lives:

"Stop and smell the roses."  "Take time to savor the moment."

This is good advice.  It's supposed to reduce stress, increase contentment, just make you generally happier, right?

Perhaps others have gotten the hang of this, but I find it a little tricky.  I spend most of my days in the chaos of three energetic, noisy kids and the work and the mess that keeping body and soul together for five people creates.

But I've started getting up early every morning to read my scriptures and exercise, and guess what?  I've started to savor...

I love having the quiet moments to read a whole chapter of scripture or linger over just a few verses.  Now I savor the thrill of reading familiar verses and suddenly seeing them in a new light, having them settle in my heart with new meaning.  (Like what happened when I read Luke 6: 31-38 last week...wow...)

I am recovering from years of depression and poor health.  So it is will a thrill that I watch the numbers on my treadmill and know that I am going a little faster, or going a little longer.  And what fun, funny little things come of that!  After my run yesterday I was rubbing my feet and was suddenly filled with an honest-to-goodness love.  For my feet!  But I was grateful that I had them, grateful that they could carry me and help me to gain the greater health that I am feeling come into my body.  I believe that definitely counts as savoring.

Or on the mornings that I do some yoga...like today... I took my mat out on the balcony and propped my little chart of yoga poses up against one of the kids' folding chairs.  With Native American flute music playing softly on my iPod, birds singing and crickets...cricking...I looked at the mountains across the valley and felt the sun on my back and I felt like I was on the set of a yoga DVD in the making.  Beat up children's furniture notwithstanding.  It was beautiful, and as I breathed in that fresh morning air I was filled with joy.  Being awake all by myself, I had the quiet to be able to savor, savor, savor the beauty and the peace.

So now, I look forward to my early mornings with a kind of giddiness.  And when I'm in the middle of a rough afternoon, I begin looking forward to the next morning.  And that new insight from Luke 6 came to save me during a rough spot a few days ago.  And every time I move a muscle that is just a little bit sore, I smile.  You could say that, in a way, my mornings are helping me start to savor things all day long.

Hmmm.  I think I smell roses. ;)